


The Things I'll Do for You

by SilverDragon00



Series: Hold On, Pain Ends [1]
Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Angst, Car Accidents, Fluff, Gen, Hinata turns punk, Hurt/Comfort, Implied/Referenced Self-Harm, M/M, Major Character Injury, Physical Therapy, Potential Triggers, Prosthesis, but really shit gets real, implied molestation, like a lot, prosthetic leg, yeAH I WENT THERE fight me
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-26
Updated: 2016-04-05
Packaged: 2018-05-16 11:54:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 14
Words: 38,352
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5827633
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SilverDragon00/pseuds/SilverDragon00
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After an accident Hinata loses his leg in, he moves to America for six months to get a prosthetic leg and attend therapy. He writes to all of his friends frequently, but then something changes and he stops writing. When he finally comes home, he's not the Hinata everyone remembers.<br/></p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I am by no means a doctor or a med student or anything, so I have limited knowledge on medical terminology or prosthesis, so please take no offense to me messing anything up.  
> Thank you!!

Kageyama was there when it happened. When neither of them were paying enough attention, and Hinata jumped up excitedly. His foot slipped off the edge of the sidewalk and the next thing Kageyama heard was the screeching of car tires and the horrible  _ thud _ when Hinata’s body impacted with the car.

A scream ripped through his throat, calling out Hinata’s name while passersby gathered around. Someone had called an ambulance and all Kageyama could see was the red on the street and -  _ oh god his leg shouldn’t be twisted like that  _ \- then the paramedics were there, lifting Hinata onto a stretcher and into the back of an ambulance. 

It wasn’t until a week later that anyone was allowed to see Hinata in the hospital. Kageyama went alone but before he was let in, a few others from the volleyball team had showed up. When Kageyama entered the room with Daichi and Suga and Tanaka behind him he almost cried from happiness.

Hinata was going to be okay. That’s what the doctor had said. When Kageyama opened the door he saw Hinata was reclined in the hospital bed, reading a book. He looked up when the door opened and smiled. He was paler than usual, and look thin.

“Hey guys!” He grinned at them, putting his book down.

“Hinata!” Tanaka shouted, throwing himself at Hinata. “You’re okay!” 

Hinata laughed, shoving Tanaka off the bed. “Of course I’m okay.”

“I’m glad to see you awake and happy, Hinata,” Suga said, walking to the side of the bed. Daichi greeted Hinata by ruffling his hair playfully. Kageyama didn’t know what to say. There had been so much blood… but Hinata looked fine now. Why had they had to wait a week to see him?

“What happened?” Kageyama finally asked.

Hinata gave him a questioning look, tilting his head and raising an eyebrow.

Kageyama sighed. “How were you injured?”

Tanaka, Suga and Daichi all looked at Hinata too, wanting to know the answer. Hinata just looked down at his lap and didn’t say anything for a few seconds. When he finally spoke, he lacked the smile he wore when they walked in.

“I got a concussion, and one of my ribs ripped through my skin after breaking.”

Kageyama winced and there was an quick intake of breath from someone.

Hinata looked up. “But it wasn’t too bad. They replaced a chunk of my rib with a metal bar and the concussion should be gone in a day or few.”

“Whoa, you have a piece of metal in your chest!” Tanaka was poking at Hinata’s ribs. “That’s so cool!”

Hinata laughed. “I guess.”

“What else?” Daichi asked. “There’s something else you’re not telling us.”

Kageyama looked from Daichi to Hinata, and the looked on Hinata’s face said the captain was right. Hinata bit his lip, then reached down to the edge of the blanket and pulled in off of his legs.

“Oh, Hinata,” Suga whispered. 

His right leg stopped just above the knee, the rest gone.

“My leg was mangled beyond repair. They had to amputate it,” Hinata mumbled, looking longingly at the spot where his leg should be resting. He quickley pulled the blanket back over it, and put his face in his hands, shuddering out a sigh.

Kageyama reached forward  and put a hand on Hinata’s head. 

 

X x X x X

 

Another week or so after that, Hinata showed up during volleyball practice with his mom. Nishinoya was the first to notice them by the door, and shouted “Hinata!” He ran over and leaned down to hug the red head, who was sitting in a wheelchair - his lap and legs covered by a blanket.

The rest of the team shuffled over too, but Kageyama got there first.

“Hey, guys, it’s great to see you!” Hinata grinned, making a point not to looked at the ball that Yamaguchi was holding. Coach Ukai and Takeda-sensei greeted Hinata’s mother and introduced themselves while the rest of the team stayed with Hinata by the door.

“Why are you in a wheelchair, Hinata?” Nishinoya asked. Daichi, Suga and Tanaka got silent. Hinata looked down at the floor.

That’s when Kageyama stepped forward and said, “It’s none of your business, Nishinoya.”

“No - Kageyama, it’s… it’s fine,” Hinata said, playing with the hem of the blanket on his lap.

“Are you sure?”

The rest of the team looked between them in confusion, besides the three that already knew about Hinata’s leg.

“Yeah, it’s okay. That’s why I’m here,” Hinata said, then looked up at everyone. “So you all know I was in a car accident.”

Murmurs from each member confirmed the statement.

“Well…” Hinata paused. “Um, my - my leg was mangled in the collision.”

A few people winced.

“... and they had to amputate it,” Hinata finished, pulling the blanket off his lap to show his leg was missing. He was wearing jeans, the right pant leg rolled up and tucked back where his leg stopped.

There were a few gasps and a few curses. Kageyama stayed next to Hinata and he felt the orange haired boy grab his wrist. He looked down into Hinata’s amber eyes. “What’s wrong?”

“The other reason I came was to say goodbye.”

“Goodbye? What do you mean?” Suga spoke up.

Hinata bit his lip and looked over at his mom who was still talking with Takeda and Ukai. He sighed. “I’m getting a prosthetic leg, so I’ll be able to walk again and maybe eventually play volleyball again.”

“That’s great, Hinata!” Tanaka said, grinning.

“But,” Hinata continued. “I have to go to America to get it. Then I have to attend physical therapy to learn how to walk again, and I don’t know how long that will take, but we’re estimating that I’ll be in America for at least six months.”

Nobody spoke.

“Six months?” Kageyama whispered. Hinata nodded. “When are you leaving?”

“My plane leaves in less than two hours. That’s why I came here now. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have a chance to say goodbye,” Hinata said quietly. “I’m sorry. I feel bad for leaving you all.”

Suga stepped forward bent over to hug Hinata tightly. “Don’t worry about us, Hinata. We all want you to get better.”

Nishinoya grinned, “Yeah, and when you come back you’ll have a cool robot leg!”

Hinata laughed at that.

“Will you write to us?” Asahi spoke up.

“Of course!” Hinata said, his face brightening. “I’ll send you all a letter every chance I get!” 

“Get better fast, okay?” Daichi said, “And when you come back, we’ll all play volleyball together, yeah?”

“Yeah!” Hinata said enthusiastically. “I’ll get better as fast as I can, so I can come back sooner!”

“Shouyou, honey, we have to leave,” Hinata’s mother said from the doorway.

Hinata bit his lip, and looked around at his friends again, his eyes resting on Kageyama longer than anyone else. “I’m really going to miss you guys.”

“We’ll miss you too.”

“Don’t worry, the time will go by fast!”

“We’ll write letters and Skype all the time!”

“It will be okay, Hinata.”

He smiled at all of his friends, “I’ll see you later guys.”

A few of them gave him a hug, before waving and heading back onto the court. Asahi ruffled Hinata’s hair and Tanaka gave him a double high five. Tsukishima even said to have a safe flight. Then it was just Kageyama left, standing in front of Hinata.

“You know,” Hinata started, quietly, with a small smile. “I’ll write to you the most. But don’t tell anyone else.”

Kageyama felt the back of his eyes prickle and he leaned forward and hugged Hinata tightly. Hinata hugged him back and they didn’t let go for a while, until Hinata said, “I have to go.”

Nodding, Kageyama helped get his wheelchair out the door and he said, “I’ll really miss you.”

“I’ll miss you too, Bakageyama!” Hinata grinned and waved over his shoulder as his mother began to wheel the chair away from the gym.

“Dumbass!” Kageyama shouted.

Hinata stuck out his tongue and laughed. Kageyama watched from the gym doorway until Hinata and his mother disappeared around the corner. He felt a tugging in his chest, which he tried to push away. He wouldn’t see Hinata for six months. 

 

X x X x X

 

The first letter they received was for the whole team, two weeks after Hinata left. It was sent to Ukai, but addressed to everyone. 

 

_ Hey everyone! _

_ It’s only been a week and I already miss all of you so much! America is so different from Japan, it’s strange. Everyone here calls me by my first name or “Mr. Hinata”, and Mom told me it’s because the culture is less formal than ours and addressing people as Mr is a form of respect. The food is kind of weird too. They won’t let me eat most of what the others eat yet, because I’m still recovering, but what they do give me isn’t too bad. _

_ The place I’m staying at is a physical therapy center for kids and teenagers. There’s lots of other kids here, and I’m sharing a room with an American kid named James, but we haven’t had the chance to talk much yet. Mom, Dad and Nastu are staying at a small apartment nearby. They stop in to see me whenever they can. _

_ I have a plastic prosthetic leg right now, but it’s only temporary for me to learn with and once I can walk properly again, I’ll get a permanent mechanical one. So far I haven’t tried walking yet, I’m bedridden most of the day and it’s super boring. My therapist said I need to rest so my ribs can heal properly and so I don’t rip the stitching on my leg. _

_ So far it’s pretty boring here though. I’ll send another letter, soon! _

_ ~Hinata _

 

A picture was in the envelope too, of Hinata holding up a peace sign with his fingers, and camera at an angle so they could see the plastic prosthetic leg that he wrote about. Tanaka and Nishinoya thought it was the coolest thing ever and started referring to Hinata as Cyborg-chan.

Kageyama also got a letter in the mail at his house, just for him. Hinata talked about more personal things in it, like how much he missed volleyball, and how he didn’t like the therapy center he was staying in, or how difficult the healing process actually was and how he was in constant pain.

For the rest of the first month, Hinata sent the team a letter twice a week (and with each of those letters, a letter for Kageyama) and they all Skyped every other day. Tsukishima, surprisingly, was the one who brought his laptop into the gym so they could each take a turn talking to Hinata.

The second month began and they didn’t have much time for Skyping anymore, with volleyball and school, and Hinata’s therapy. The time difference alone was making it difficult enough. They still exchanged letters, though it was only once a week. In one of Hinata’s letters, he said that his doctor didn’t want him on the computer often anymore anyways because he needed to be more active. His Skype calls had become limited to one hour every week, but sometimes they didn’t get a chance to use that hour.

One of Hinata’s letters to the team had two pictures in it. One was of Hinata with his arm slung over the shoulders of another boy, who had long brown hair, lots of piercings and a prosthetic arm. Hinata said that it was his roommate, James, who had become his friend in the past two months. Kageyama felt a bit of jealousy upon seeing the photo of the two grinning boys.

The other photo was of Hinata standing up right, each of his hands gripping a parallel bar on either side. He was grinning, but obviously straining to stay upright. He said it was getting easier to stand, and he was starting to get used to the prosthetic leg like it was his own. They wrote back telling him how happy they were for him, and asking him things about America, and how long it would be until he didn’t need the support bars.

In a letter to Kageyama, he told him how difficult it was when he went to bed at night, having to take off the prosthetic. He hated looking down at the nonexistent leg. Kageyama reassured him, telling him it would get better.

Towards the end of the second month, Hinata was up on Skype and Kageyama, Suga and Noya were crowded in front of the small screen talking to him. He was sitting in his bed at the therapy center, his own laptop propped up on a lap table. He looked a lot healthier, the color in his skin was back and he wasn’t so frail looking anymore. It was good to see.

“You know, you guys are all my friends, it sounds so formal for you still to be calling me Hinata. You guys can call me Shouyou, if you want,” Hinata said casually.

“Shouyou,” Kageyama said quietly. Noya and Suga said they would call him by whatever he liked.

Hinata grinned at them.

“Shou, are you ready?” Someone called from Hinata’s room. The redhead looked over the screen at whoever had spoken. 

“Yeah, James, just let me say goodbye,” He said, then looked back down at the screen. “Sorry guys, our group therapist, Sasha, is taking a few of us out to dinner. It’s the first time I’ve been out of this place in almost two months!”

“Good for you, Shouyou!” Suga said happily, Hinata’s name sounding foreign.

“We’ll talking to you soon,” Nishinoya said, holding up a peace sign.

“Have fun,” Kageyama said, a tightening in his chest telling him he didn’t want Hinata to go just yet, and that he wanted to talk to him for hours.

Hinata waved and said goodbye before ending the call. Kageyama wouldn’t admit it out loud, but he was jealous. Jealous that some American kid was the first to use Hinata’s first name, jealous that Hinata was having fun without him, and jealous that he barely got to hear the sound of Hinata’s voice and those other kids in the physical therapy center did.

Though he would never admit it outloud.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know the the school timeline and the months Shouyou is in America don't exactly make sense, but just go with it XD

By the end of the third month Hinata was in America, they no longer Skyped. It just sort of faded from their methods of communication, but they still exchanged letters, though sparsely. A letter arrived every two weeks or so, for the whole team, and one for Kageyama around the same time.

Since they never video chat, Kageyama was happy when they got pictures included in the letters. One of the most recent letters had three pictures in it. The first one was of a grinning Hinata standing on his own on a basketball court. The basketball was resting on his hip, and he was holding up a peace sign, wearing a plain blue tee shirt and black basketball shorts, his plastic prosthetic leg shown proudly. The next picture looked like it was taken on the same day on the basketball court. Hinata stood between two other kids, James from an earlier picture, and a girl with blonde hair and two prosthetic legs. The third picture was a close up of Hinata’s smiling face and bright eyes. Nothing was different, from his crazy orange hair to the light freckles speckling his face - other that the two black piercings on his lower lip. 

The letter read:

 

_ What’s up, Karasuno? _

_ Sorry I haven’t been mailing you as often as I used to, I’ve been super, super busy! I finally can walk on my own without supports or crutches, so I’ve been moving around all the time trying to regain my muscle. According to my doctor, I lose a lot of muscle weight while I was bed ridden, so I’m working on getting strong again. _

_ Since I hit such a milestone, a bunch of the therapists were proud of me and took me into town with James to buy something for myself. James talked me into getting a piercing like him, so I got two on my bottom lip. They look so cool, right? Are you jealous, Tanaka? I’m as cool as your sister now.  <(｀^´)> _

_ Anyways, since I want to be more active, my doctors and therapists are encouraging me to do sports with a few of the other kids like James - and Laura, who transferred here recently. She’s pretty nice, but she’s wild and reminds me of you, Nishinoya!  _

Upon reading this, Noya suddenly shouted, “Don’t you dare replace me, Shouyou!”

 

_ I’ve been playing basketball, which is fun and sort of reminds me of volleyball, but it’s not really the same. I can’t wait to come home and play with you guys again. They don’t have a court here and nobody I know here has ever played it in an actual game. _

_ Well, maybe since I’m recovering quicker than expected, I’ll be home sooner! _

 

_ ~Shouyou _

 

Tanaka fawned over how cool the piercings were and Asahi said that it wasn’t very Hinata-like, which Kageyama agreed with. Someone shouted that they didn’t like this “James Character” and it didn’t surprise Kageyama when he saw Daichi tump Noya on the back of his head and tell him to stop judging. Though secretly, Kageyama didn’t like James or Laura. Especially Laura. Since she was a girl.

Kageyama wrote to Hinata and subtly asked about Laura, though he tried to make it seem like it was just casual conversation. He didn’t get a reply for a week,  and when he did the only letter that came was for him and it was super short. It just said that Laura lost her legs in a surfing accident and that if Kageyama was being jealous, he could just ask Hinata straight out about her. (This was followed by a series of smiley faces). Hinata also informed him that,  _ of course _ , he didn’t have a crush on Laura, and like he said before, she was too much like Nishinoya.

X x X x X

Month four passed and they didn’t receive a single letter from Hinata until the very end of the month. Kageyama had started to worry a bit when no a single letter came through for four weeks, and then he walked into the gym on a friday and Ukai was holding up a letter, saying it was from Hinata.

Daichi took it from him and opened it up. Hinata apologized for not writing for so long, he’s been busy some extra physical therapy he was going through because he tripped while messing around with James and bruised his hip and irritated his ribs. But he also told them that in two weeks time, he would be fitted for his permanent mechanical prosthetic. He also wrote that he was allowed to visit his mom, dad and Nastu at the apartment they were staying at so he could be there for Natsu’s sixth birthday.

There was a picture of Hinata sitting on the floor, next to Nastu while she opened her presents. Hinata was wearing a black tee shirt, jeans and a hat.

“Does he look taller?” Yamaguchi asked while they all looked at the photo.

Kageyama looked up at Yamaguchi, then back down at the photo and - yeah he did look a little taller. Maybe only a few centimeters, but still taller.

“It’s probably because of all the therapy. He has to do a lot of stretching,” Sugawara shrugged. “His bones might have adjusted a bit.”

Kageyama didn’t like it. He wanted Hinata to come home soon. The letter Kageyama got from Hinata a day later had him talking about how much he hated being cooped up in the clinic day and night. He told Kageyama about the therapists treating him like a child who still needed help getting around and he didn’t. He wrote that he just wanted to be done there and come home.

Kageyama wanted Hinata to come home too.

 

X x X x X

They were halfway through month six with no word from Hinata since the last letter, and most of the team was anxious to hear from Hinata. The end of the term was coming up, meaning Hinata would be turning seventeen soon. Kageyama had hoped Hinata would be back before his seventeenth birthday, but he wasn’t so sure that would be happening. 

Kageyama wished Hinata’s cell phone would work in America, but Hinata had told them over a Skype call that it didn’t, and that why he was only sending letters.

At some point, the team got fed up with waiting and they all sat down and contributed to a letter for Hinata, and gave it to Ukai to mail from all of them. They wanted to know when Hinata was coming home, and if he was okay.

When they finally got a response, almost a week later, it was from Hinata’s mother. They were all confused and a bit worried as they waited in anticipation for Suga to rip open the envelope and pull out a one page letter addressed to “Karasuno Volleyball Team”, written by Hinata’s mother.

The team got more and more confused as they read through the letter, which explained why Hinata hadn’t been writing them.

 

_ Karasuno Volleyball Team, _

 

_ I apologize that Shouyou hasn’t been able to write to you for the past month and a half, but he’s going through some difficult times right now. I think he was frustrated at being confined to the therapy center, and a few weeks he snuck out at night with two of his friends, Laura and James. _

_ The three of them were missing for a few days before the police found them and brought them back. Laura was sent back to a different facility and James and Shouyou were put on lockdown in separate rooms for two weeks. When they were finally allowed to leave, each of them was assigned an orderly to watch them. _

_ Shouyou has been very withdrawn since then and refuses to speak to anyone but James, otherwise he’ll lash out and yell. I’ve tried to get him to write to you all, but he refuses and keeps saying that he wants to get out of the center.  _

_ I honestly don’t know what to do with him, he’s never acted like this before. If any of you could please write to him and maybe figure out what’s wrong, I would really appreciate it because we hate seeing him like this. _

_ ~Akia Hinata _

  
  


Suga looked around after reading the letter out loud. “This isn’t like Shouyou at all.”

Murmurs of agreement.

“I’d be pretty angry if they kept me locked up for months, too,” Tsukki said offhandedly, looking down at his phone.

Kageyama knew it had to be more than that, Hinata wouldn’t  _ run away _ for no reason, something must have happened. Or maybe it was that kid James. Could he have encouraged Hinata to run away? He got him to get the piercings. “I’ll write to him,” Kageyama said. “Let me write it, but it will be from all of us.”

Everyone looked around and nodded in agreement. Kageyama and Hinata had been the closest, so maybe he could figure out what was going on with their friend. 

Kageyama headed home after practice and sat down at his desk to write out a letter. It took him three times to even start the letter and another two tries to come up with what he should write. He finally settled with this:

 

_ Hey Dumbass, _

 

_ So your mother told us about what happened… don’t be mad with her, we were worried about you and asked, so she was truthful. She said you want to leave the therapy center - one of your earlier letters said something similar. What’s going on? Why do you hate it there so much? _

_ If it’s because they never really let you leave, just think about how much freedom you’ll have when you finally come home to Japan.  _

_...But I don’t think that’s it, right? Did something else happen? Please don’t push people away. If you don’t want to talk to you mom, talk to me, okay, dumbass? or even one of the others. I’m sure Suga would be able to help. _

_ Please reply, Shouyou. _

_ ~Kageyama _

  
Kageyama sighed when he finished. It was sappy, but he didn’t care, really. He mailed the letter that night and began the wait for a reply.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please leave a review and tell me what you think! The next chapter is going to be longer, I promise.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Things are finally getting interesting... ᶘ ͡°ᴥ͡°ᶅ

The reply came after the end of the term, almost two weeks after he sent the letter. It came directly to Kageyama’s house and after he read it, he sent out a mass text to the team, informing them that Hinata would be coming home. 

 

 **Kageyama:** _got a reply from shou. he is coming home_

 

 **Sawamura:** _That’s great! Did he say when?_

 

 **Kageyama:** _it was his mom who wrote the letter again. she said they will be here in a week_

 

 **Nishinoya:** _SHOU FINALLY YES NOW I CAN SEE HIS PIERCINGS 4 REAL_

 

 **Sugawara:** _I can’t wait to see him!_

 

**Sawamura:** _ Why do you always type in caps lock, Noya? _

 

 **Nishinoya:** _BCUZ IM ALWAYS EXCITED DUH_

 

**Tanaka:** _ I AGREE NOYA _

 

 **Yamaguchi:** _it will be great 2 finally see him_

 

 **Ennoshita:** _do you know why he was so upset b4?_

 

 **Kageyama:** _no but we can ask him when he gets here, he’ll probably text us_

 

Nobody else responded immediately, so Kageyama tossed his phone onto his bed and took his volleyball out back. He really was excited that Hinata was coming back, even if he didn’t show it outwardly. These past few months have been lonely for him, and even though most of the time he spent with Hinata was arguing, they were still friends and Kageyama missed the ray of sunshine’s smile.

He was also sort of nervous. What if Hinata was different? The tone of his letters had changed over the past six months, and from what his mother told them, he was acting in a way she had never seen before.

Kageyama would just have to wait and find out.

 

X x X x X

 

The next week went by agonizingly slowly. He had gotten the letter from Hinata’s mother on Saturday and even though he knew Hinata wouldn’t be there until Friday at the earliest, he kept checking his phone, hoping to see a message from Hinata saying that he was back and wanted to hang out or something.

It’s not like Kageyama had much to do, it was summer break and they had a month and a half before the next term started, which was plenty of time to do his homework so he wasn’t going to do it now. He played volleyball with Tanaka, Noya and Asahi once during the week but vowed never to play alone with those three ever again after Noya thought it would be a good idea to bring water balloons and fill his volleyball sneakers with shaving cream when he wasn’t looking.

Finally, the next Saturday after still receiving no word from any of the Hinatas, he gave in and sent a message to Hinata’s cell, then watched as the little  _ Delivered _ message popped up. Kageyama’s head shot up from where he was laying in bed. That meant Hinata was back in Japan; if he wasn’t it wouldn’t have been delivered. When did he get back? Why hasn't he texted Kageyama?

It was almost midday but he hadn’t gotten out of his bed yet, and was reading all morning since he had nothing else to do. He stood up from his bed and changed into a tee shirt, shorts then put his sneakers on (the ones that didn’t get shaving cream in them), then checked his phone. Hinata’s hadn’t replied or read the message yet. 

Unsure of what to do, he called Sugawara without even thinking. 

_ “Kageyama? What’s up?” _ Suga sounded confused, but that was to be expected - Kageyama never called him before.

“Er - have you heard from Shouyou yet?”

_ “No, why? Is he back? Did he message you?”  _ Suga started to sound excited.

Kageyama shook his head, then remembered Suga couldn’t see him, “Well, no, but I text him and the message was delivered, which means he is back in a service area.”

_ “...So he’s in Japan?” _

“Yeah, I think so. Why do you think he hasn’t contacted anyone?” Kageyama asked, but what he was thinking was closer to  _ why hasn’t he contacted  _ me _? _

_ “He might have just gotten back last night, _ ” Suga said,  _ “He could be sleeping, don’t worry too much about it.” _

Kageyama bit his lip. He didn’t want to sound pushy or desperate, but he couldn’t wait to see Hinata again. “Yeah, all right. Thanks Suga-senpai.”

_ “No problem, Kageyama. Hey, do you want out hang out with me tomorrow? A few of us from the team are going to the public volleyball court and Ukai is going to be there.” _

“Is Nishinoya going to be there?”

_ “Probably, why?” _

Kageyama almost groaned, but he wasn’t going to pass up the chance to get out of the house and go play volleyball, “All right, sure. What time?”

_ “Around 15:oo.” _

“I’ll be there. See you tomorrow.”

_ “See you.” _

Kageyama hung up his phone and checked his messages again. Still no reply. He sighed, and told himself Hinata was probably tired from the trip and settling back into his house. He didn’t need to push him, Hinata wasn’t going anywhere anytime soon.

Left his phone on his desk so he wouldn’t be tempted to keep checking it and walked downstairs. His mom was in the kitchen making curry rice for lunch. “You’re finally up?” She joked as he walked into the kitchen.

He rolled his eyes.

“Is Hinata-kun back from America yet? You said he would be home soon.”

“Yeah I think he is.”

His mom hummed in acknowledgement, “You should go see him.”

“I might tomorrow,” Kageyama said. “Oh, I’m going to play volleyball with my team tomorrow around 15:00.”

“That’s fine, just be home before 20:30, all right? If you’re going to walk around in the dark please stay with your senpais,” She told him.

“I know, mom, I’m sixteen,” He said, walking into the living room.

His mom just laughed and shook her head.

 

X x X x X

Kageyama avoided checking his phone the rest of the night, but it was the first thing he did when he woke up on Sunday. He unlocked his phone and opened the messages and his heart almost flipped when he saw  _ Delivered  _ had turned into  _ Read: 01:34 _ . What the hell was Hinata doing awake at one thirty in the morning? 

_ It’s because of the time difference, dumbass,  _ his reasoning told him - Hinata might not be used to Japan’s timezone yet. He sighed and rolled onto his back. It wasn’t like Hinata not to respond. He usually responded immediately, but that was before… before the accident. It was also before he stopped sending letters and started running away.

What the hell had happened?

Kageyama spent most of his morning inside until around 14:45 when he left his house on his bike to head toward the public volleyball court. It only was a ten minute bike ride but it took him almost twenty minutes and he wasn’t in a rush so he took a few detours. When he got to the court, Daichi was the only one there, fixing the net. He had brought a bag of volleyballs, and Kageyama helped make sure they were all full of air.

“Suga said you think Shouyou is back in Japan?” Daichi asked, bouncing one of the balls.

“Yeah, look,” Kageyama held up his phone, showing him that the message was read.

Daichi nodded, “So he has to be here, right? Do you want to go see if he’s home?”

Kageyama shrugged, and knelt down to re-tie his sneakers. The Hinata household was just up the mountain from here, and Kageyama had visited Hinata enough before to know it would only be a fifteen, maybe twenty minute bike ride. “Not yet,” Kageyama decided. “I want to wait and see if he responds first.

“That might be the best choice,” Daichi said, then looked across the court. “There’s Asahi and Nishinoya.”

“Hey Kageyama, how are your sneakers?” Noya laughed. Asahi thumped him on the head and Kageyama glared at him.

They didn’t actually start a game until almost 16:00 because it took a while for everyone to show up and everyone kept messing around. When Ukai finally got everyone (Daichi, Suga, Noya, Tanaka, Ennoshita, Yamaguchi, Asahi and Kageyama) together they played a few four on four games.

Whenever it was Kageyama’s turn to sever he would purposely aim at Nishinoya and hit the ball as hard as possible, trying to get him in the face but it only worked once and Ukai had him sit out for a couple minutes after. Then when they were taking a break he dumped water down the back of Noya’s shirt and they called a truce.

Just after 18:30 they packed up the volleyballs and took down the net. 

“Hey guys, want to get something to eat? I’ll buy,” Sugawara offered.

Ukai had to get back to his store, Yamaguchi had to head home and Ennoshita wasn’t hungry but everyone else agreed and they walked from the court into town together. Kageyama left his bike at the park and chained it to the fence because he didn’t want to drag it with them.

While everyone was arguing over what to eat, Kageyama checked his phone and was disappointed to see Hinata still hadn’t replied. When he put his phone back in his pocket he looked up to see they were headed into the edge of the city. Apparently everyone had agreed on a ramen place to eat at. The sun was already setting so most the the streetlights were on and the buildings were casting huge shadows that made it seem like nighttime.

They entered the ramen place and were seated near a window that looked over the street. Daichi and Suga had to keep telling Noya and Tanaka to quiet down to which they replied “yes mom” or “yes dad”. 

Kageyama sometimes thought that he went to school with five year olds.

While Kageyama was looking outside, a commotion suddenly broke out across the street at one of the shops. A few people started yelling about something and others were scrambling around. It was loud enough that Suga and Asahi, who were next to him leaned over to look out the window and Noya and Tanaka stopped sword fighting with the chopsticks to see what was going on. Daichi told them to stop staring but then began to watch too as someone darted out in the road and a car screeched to a stop to avoid hitting them. 

The person ran in front of the car, jumped and slid across the hood of the next car and looked over his shoulder at the shop. Someone began to chase after him and another person in the shop shouted at him. The guy ran the rest of the way across the road, almost tripped on the sidewalk, and ran down the street - one of the shop owners chasing after them. As the person ran past the restaurant window all Kageyama saw was a flash of orange, then the person and shop owner were gone and out of sight. 

Kageyama leaned back in his seat, looking down at the table, confused, then looked up at his friends. Noya was the one who spoke first.

“Am I the only one who saw Shouyou?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ha ha, so this is kind of embarrassing and I noticed a terrible flaw with this story... Shou, James and Laura shouldn't be able to communicate because James and Laura speak English and Shou speaks Japanese...  
> This isn't explained in the story, but at the therapy center Shouyou had a translate (a person who would sit with him and his therapist so the translate could tell each of them what the other was saying).  
> So, because I forgot that Shou speaks Japanese, lets pretend James is Bilingual and help Laura and Shou talk.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry about how short this is... The next chapter will be longer, and the drama will begin!

“There’s no way that was Shouyou,” Tanaka said. “He wouldn’t run out in front of a car just months after being hit by one.”

“Did anyone see his face?” Asahi asked.

“No, He was moving too fast.”

“I only saw the hair, but really, who else has hair  _ that  _ bright?”

“That doesn’t mean it was Shouyou…”

“Kageyama, you said you thought he was in Japan, right?” Suga asked and Kageyama nodded. Now way was that Hinata though.

They all looked around at each other. “What was going on across the street, did anyone see?” Daichi asked.

“I just saw him being chased from the shop, there was too many cars in the way to see why,” Suga replied.

Nobody spoke for a few minutes, and Kageyama looked back out the window, searching for a sign of what might have been Hinata. If it was him, it was hard to even tell he had a prosthetic leg; he moved like it was it his real leg. Another reason why Kageyama was sure it wasn’t Hinata.

Nishinoya suddenly stood up, “I don’t know about you guys, but I want to know what happened, so I’m going to go over there and ask. Kageyama stood up quickly and maneuvered around Suga and Daichi.

“I’ll go with you,” He said.

Daichi sighed. “Don’t kill either other, and please come back quick.”

“Yes, dad,” Nishinoya teased, grabbing Kageyama’s arm and pulling him towards the door. Kageyama heard a thump as Daichi dropped his head onto the table and groaned.

Nishinoya and Kageyama left the restaurant and quickly crossed the street towards the shop. The shop owner was picking up a stand of magazines and fixing them all while huffing about loud teenagers and the ruckus they cause. Kageyama didn’t really want to interrupt him, so he nudged Noya with his elbow, hoping the smaller boy would start the conversation. Nishinoya gave him an irritated look, then sighed and cleared his throat, “Excuse me, sir?” 

The clerk turned around and straightened his shirt, giving him a bit of a forced smile, then said, “How can I help you?”

“Um… what just happened over here? We heard a commotion.”

The clerk sighed and looked down the street, as if he was looking for the redhead (Hinata?) again, “Some kid was over here looking around and picked a fight with my nephew, Haruo. My nephew tried to get him out of the shop, but the brat punched Haruo and knocked over my magazine display while running into the street.”

Noya glanced up at Kageyama; maybe it wasn’t Hinata after all. “What did he look like?” Kageyama asked.

The shop owner shrugged, “Kind of short, I guess. Had funky orange hair - I’ve never seen any like it,” The man glanced down the street again. “Boy that kid could run though, for a cripple.”

“A cripple?”

“Well, yeah the fight started because my nephew commented on his prosthetic leg.”

Kageyama was already across the street, his phone in his hand and Nishinoya gave a respectful bow to the man and thanked him before rushing after Kageyama. “That was rude, you can’t just walk off like that,” Noya said while they walked back into the restaurant where the others were waiting.

Kageyama shrugged. That had to be Hinata, what are the chances of a kid with crazy orange hair and a prosthetic leg being in this specific area of Japan? He pulled up Hinata’s contact on his phone while Noya told the others what the clerk had said.

He hit the call button and held the phone up to his ear. It rang a few times then cut off and went to voicemail. Kageyama pulled the phone away from his ear. Hinata had… declined his call? What the hell was going on with him?

“You tried calling him?” Suga asked from where he sat.

Kageyama nodded. “He declined the call. Something is wrong.”

“Something’s  _ been _ wrong,” Daichi said, running his fingers through his short hair and making it stick up. “Ever since he stopped writing us.”

“I kind of want to go to his house and check on him,” Tanaka said quietly. “That’s probably where he went, right?”

Everyone seemed to agree.

“Kageyama should go,” Suga said.

“Me? Why me?” Kageyama asked, although truthfully he was glad Sugawara volunteered him. Too many people would be crowded and Kageyama wanted to be the first to see Hinata. Not because he missed him. Obviously. He just wanted to see, er, his prosthetic leg. Yeah.

“Because you were the closest to Hinata before the accident,” Asahi answered. 

“You’re also the only one who has been to his house before,” Suga pointed out.

Kageyama nodded, “Okay, I’ll go now I guess.”

“Do you want to to stay to eat first?” Daichi asked.

“No, I’ll be fine,” Kageyama said, then nodded to Suga. “Thank you for inviting me today.” He said goodbye to the others and left the store, then jogged back to the public court which only took a few minutes since he was rushing. The sun has completely set so it was dark, only the yellow street lamps lighting up the road. He unlocked his bike from the fence and started pedalling in the direction of Hinata’s house.

X x X x X

It took just over fifteen minutes to get to the Hinata’s house and he rested his bike against the cement wall that hid the house from the street. Kageyama felt his heart speed up when he saw there were lights on in the house and he could faintly hear voices coming from inside. He walked through the unlocked gate and approached the front door, realizing the voices were yelling.

Hesitating before knocking, he listened, trying to hear who was yelling.

“You need to be more careful, Shouyou, you can’t just run off like that!” It sounded like Hinata’s father, shouting and sounded aggravated. “You know how worried your mother was?”

There was no response, only the sound of of someone walking a few feet.

“Are you even listening to me?” The man shouted. “You know how expensive that damn leg was? You know how much it would cost to get it replaced?”

“Because that’s all you care about, right? Not that I almost got hit by a car again!” That was Hinata, most definitely. He sounded pissed. Kageyama fet his heart thumping and even though he knew it was rude, he kept listening.

“Shouyou!” His father shouted back. It was silent again. More footsteps. “Don’t walk away while I’m talking with you!”

“You’re not talking  _ with  _ me, you’re  _ yelling at _ me, and I don’t want to hear it anymore!” Hinata shouted at him. He sounded farther away, towards the back of the house.

“If you walk out that door I’m going to lock you out!”

“Do it! See if I care!” Hinata yelled. A door opened then slammed shut. The back door. Kageyama quietly began to move around the house, avoiding the windows so he didn’t cast a shadow on the drawn curtains. As Kageyama neared the back of the house he could hear Hinata talking again, quietly. The conversation was one-sided and Kageyama realized he must be on the phone. Kageyama stayed hidden.

“No, I know that…” Hinata was saying. “He doesn’t realize it’s hard for me too… yes….”

He was paused to listen to the person on the other line. Kageyama felt a little jealous that he was talking to someone else on the phone, but wouldn’t respond to him. He felt a little hurt to, honestly. 

“...that’s fine… No, you don’t need to do that… really?” Hinata was saying, then he sighed, “Yeah… it’s just going to take a while. We’ve been fighting a lot… No, he would never do that… I can’t tell him that… James, it’s fine, I promise.”

So he was talking to James. Kageyama rolled his eyes. He never met this kid, but he doesn’t like him.

“I haven’t seen any of my friends yet,” Hinata was saying, and Kageyama listened closer, maybe he would find out why Hinata seemed to be avoiding him. “... maybe I’ll try to visit one of them tomorrow…. I don’t know… I’m sort of worried they’ll look at me differently… No! I can’t tell them that!... Yeah, his name is Kageyama…”

Hinata was talking about him. That almost made Kageyama feel better. He was starting to think maybe he should leave, if Hinata was going to try and visit one of them tomorrow. Hopefully him. Probably him. 

“All right… thanks for listening… yeah, I’ll call you tomorrow… no, I know that… all right, James… bye,” Hinata stopped talking. Kageyama couldn’t see him around the corner of the house, but he heard the redhead sigh.

He decided he would wait until tomorrow. He quietly left the house and got on his bike, then sped away. He still hadn’t actually seen Hinata, and that annoyed him to no end, but if Hinata was nervous about seeing any of his friends, it might be better to wait.

Although, before he went to bed he sent out a message to the volleyball team group chat saying he would be in the shopping district tomorrow if anyone wanted to join him, because he knew Hinata would receive the message too.


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this took a week to get out! I was having trouble writing Hinata, so this chapter is shorter. I'm trying to update every 1-3 days.

As soon as Kageyama woke up at 08:00 (the earliest he’d woken up yet this summer) he checked his phone immediately to see if Hinata had responded to the group chat or message him at all. He hadn’t. The only messages he had were in the group chat, most of the team saying they were busy tomorrow or had other things they were doing. Kageyama glared at the screen when he realized Nishinoya and Tanaka were the only ones who said they would be coming. He groaned and stuffed his face in his pillow.

Sugawara, Daichi or even Yamaguchi would be better to hang out with him rather than those idiots. Sighing, Kageyama climbed out of bed. He still had to go, just incase Hinata did show up. Secretly, he was a little relieved that only two others were coming because he didn’t want to intimidate Hinata into not showing up. Kageyama had said he’d be at the shopping district around noon, so he had a few hours to himself now since his mom had gone to work already.

He made natto and fried eggs for breakfast, which he ate in the backyard since it was so nice out; then finished his summer Japanese homework and started on his algebra homework before quickly getting bored. Kageyama was a little nervous, even though it wasn’t guaranteed that Hinata would show up. He still felt a weird fluttering in his stomach at the possibility. Odd. He usually gets a similar feeling right before an important volleyball game.

After checking his phone a dozen or so times, it was finally 11:00 he figured he could start walking towards the district. When he walked outside, he looked towards the right up the street, momentarily contemplating if he should walk to Hinata’s house or not, but decided that he should just wait and see what happens.

It took just over half an hour to get to the central shopping district, where streets full of shops and food venders and people roamed around. There was an open area between a bunch of shops that had picnic tables surrounding a small fountain where people sat eating lunch together. He sent a message to the group chat with his location so Noya and Tanaka could find him. Not that he really wanted to hang out with them, but he also didn’t want to walk around alone.

He walked around aimlessly for a while until he heard Noya call out to him from near a shoe store, waving at him with Tanaka at his side. The two made their way over to him and the first thing out of Noya’s mouth was, “This is a ploy to get Shouyou here, isn’t it?”

“I thought you went to see him last night?” Tanaka inquired.

Kageyama rolled his eyes and they began walking in a random direction, “I did go to check on him, but I heard arguing going on inside the house, so I left.” He didn’t need to mention that he had spied on Hinata for almost ten minutes. No one really needed to know that.

“So you think maybe he’ll show up today?” Noya asked. Kageyama shrugged.

Tanaka grinned and rubbed his hands together, “What should we do until we see him? If he shows up?”

Kageyama rubbed the back of his neck and said, “Let’s stay around here if we do anything.”

The two looked confused, but then Nishinoya’s eyes lit up and he said, “Ooh! Because if Shou is going to come, he probably saw the message that says where you are!”

“Yeah.”

Tanaka swung an arm over Kageyama shoulder’s and poked him in the cheek, “You are smarter than you look, Kageyama-kun.”

“Are you calling me stupid?” He growled, then ducked under Tanaka’s arm. “Don’t touch me. And don’t call me -kun.”

Tanaka stuck out his tongue out before Noya grabbed both of them and pulled them into a store with a magazine display in the window. While Noya and Tanaka fawned over a magazine with women all over it, Kageyama watched out the window for any sign of bright orange hair. 

 

X x X x X

 

“I’m hungry, let’s get lunch,” Noya declared around 13:00. They went back to the area with picnic tables and food vendors and each of them got MOS burger then found a table near the fountain to sit at. Kageyama was scanning the crowds around them, Noya was shovelling his food in his mouth while his legs bounced up and down and Tanaka kept craning his neck to look around.

Then Tanaka pointed over Kageyama’s shoulder and said, “Holy shit! Is that him?” Kageyama immediately turned around and Noya stood up to see over the setter’s head.

It was definitely Hinata Shouyou. But not quite as they remembered him.

He was leaning against one of the shop walls, looking down at his phone with earbuds in, listening to music. He had a black beanie on and his bright orange hair was sticking out of it, a bit longer than it used to be and the tips were dyed black. He was wearing jeans, covering his prosthetic leg - if Kageyama didn’t know better he wouldn’t even know one of the legs was mechanical. They way Hinata balanced on it, his other foot planted back against the wall, looked like the most natural thing. 

He also wore a black tee shirt and a dark red hoodie, despite the heat. When he glanced around quickly, Kageyama saw shadows under his eyes, making him look tired. He probably was, considering the time change. It would take a while for him to get used to it again.

“Wait, don’t all look at once, he’ll notice,” Tanaka said quickly, and Noya sat down and Kageyama turned back around. He was actually here. He showed up. It couldn’t be coincidence, he definitely showed up because of the message Kageyama sent. He felt his heart speed up a little bit and he chewed on his lip. Why did he feel like this? It’s just Hinata.

“What should we do?” Noya asked Kageyama, who just shrugged. Why were they asking him? Oh yeah- this was his idea, right. He opened his mouth to respond, but Noya had stood up and was grinning and waving. “Shouyou!” He shouted.

Kageyama whipped around again to look. Hinata looked up quickly and looked around for the source of the shouting, his two lower lip piercings glinting off the sunlight. Kageyama had forgotten about those. Noya shouted again and Hinata looked directly at them, his eyes widening a bit. Tanaka grinned and waved too. The redhead looked towards one of the streets, like he was thinking about leaving, then back at them. He pulled out his earbuds and stuck them and his phone in his pocket and walked towards the table. Kageyama’s heart did flips in his chest.

He couldn’t help but glance down at Hinata’s leg quickly, and noticed that the jeans hung a little looser around his right leg - the prosthetic one. Hinata stopped at their table, with that signature grin that outshined the smudges under his eyes and said, “Geez, I’ve only been gone six months and suddenly you three are friends? What did I miss?”

Tanaka and Noya burst into laughter then hounded Hinata with hugs, pulling his hat off and ruffling his hair, Tanaka lifted him off the ground for a second and Noya poked him in the lip, “Those piercings are so cool! Did they hurt?”

“Yeah a little,” Hinata said with a laugh.

“What about your hair? Awesome!” Tanaka exclaimed.

Hinata blushed and pulled his hat back on, “Ha, yeah, it was kind of an impulse when I did it. You think it looks okay?”

“Yeah it’s awesome!” Nishinoya shouted, then paused and looked Hinata up and down. “Did you grow?”

Tanaka noticed too and held his hand on Hinata’s head, trying to measure against himself. Hinata nodded, “Yeah, only a few centimeters though. It’s because of all the stretching and stuff I had to do.” He then turned to Kageyama, who had been sitting in silence.

“What’s up, Kageyama? Too shocked by my new coolness to say hi?” Hinata said with a smirk, then stuck his tongue out and laughed.

Kageyama stood up quickly and grabbed Hinata’s head. “Damn. You’re still annoying.” Wow. Great going, Kageyama, you haven’t seen your best friend in six months and that’s the first thing you say? Perfect.

Hinata just laughed, and wrapped his arm’s around Kageyama’s middle, but pulled away quickly, and gave Kageyama a sincere smile, “I missed you a lot.”

Kageyama felt his ears get warmer and he mumbled, “I missed you too.” 

Tanaka and Noya started ‘awww’-ing and Kageyama hit them both on the head, then looked back at Hinata who was grinning still. Now that he was standing he could tell Hinata was a little taller. Before the accident, Hinata had been about eye level with Kageyama’s shoulders, now he was about eye level with Kageyama’s chin or lips. It wasn’t a huge difference, but it was noticeable.

“Are you hungry? I’ll buy for you,” Noya offered, but Hinata shook his head no and thanked him, then sat down on the bench next to Kageyama.

“So seriously, what did I miss? I’ve never seen you three hang out,” Hinata laughed, checking his phone for something then setting it on the table.

Kageyama answer before Tanaka or Nishinoya could give away his ploy, “I made the mistake of messaging the group chat that I would be here today, and these two showed up.”

Hinata just laughed at that, “So not much has changed?”

Kageyama shrugged.

“Shouyou, tell us about America!” Noya prompted, excitedly and Tanaka began nodding vigorously. “It’s been forever since we’ve really talked!”

Hinata began excitedly telling them about things he did in America and the stuff he saw or ate, and how Nastu’s been - in exchange for the other three telling him how the team’s been and what they’ve all been doing. Thankfully, Nishinoya and Tanaka were respectful enough to not ask about Hinata’s mechanical leg, since the redhead seem to be purposely avoiding it.

Kageyama didn’t talk much, he just subtly watched Hinata, like he was trying to figure out a puzzle. There was something… off. About Hinata. Something just a little different, but Kageyama couldn’t quite put his finger on it. Hinata’s left leg bounced up and down under the table, but that wasn’t really new - he always was full of energy. His hand, which was placed loosely on the table, kept tapping out a rhythm that Kageyama didn’t recognize - again, not really that new. He kept checking his phone. That was new, but definitely wasn’t the problem.

“Kageyama? Hey, are you spacing out?” Hinata waved his hand in front of Kageyama’s face and he scowled. 

“No, of course not, dumbass.”

Hinata smiled sweetly and Kageyama felt his heart swell in his chest, so he quickley looked away. “You haven’t said much. How are you doing?” Hinata asked, tilting his head slightly.

“Good, I guess,” He mumbled. This isn’t really how he expected their first meeting in months to go. He wasn’t as nervous as he was before, but that dumb feeling in his chest was back, and he couldn’t understand it.

Hinata raised an eyebrow, and he glanced back at his phone again, then up at Kageyama, “Heh, if I grow more we’ll be closer in height.”

“Nah.”

“Nah! What does that mean?” The redhead pouted.

“You won’t grow anymore, you’re going to be shrimp forever.”

“Idiot! Don’t be mean,” Hinata pouted.

Kageyama shrugged, “I’m being honest, you’re the one yelling.”

This was better. Arguing over petty stuff, not really meaning any insults they throw at each other. It felt normal, like before. The four of them fell into an easy conversation, talking about nothing in particular. Nishinoya and Tanaka gave a thrilling retelling of Noya putting shaving cream in Kageyama’s shoes and about a few of the volleyball matches they had during school. Tanaka laughed while telling Hinata about one match where Yamaguchi served the ball straight into Kageyama’s head, just like Hinata did that one time.

It was nice just being able to talk again, and they all enjoyed it.

Until Hinata’s cell phone rang. 

Hinata looked down at his phone, his eyes brightening, “I’ll be right back,” He say quickly, grabbing the phone and standing to walking a little ways away. He put the phone up to his ear and said something excitedly.

Noya pouted, “How lame. Who do you think he’s talking to?”

Kageyama would bet his favorite volleyball is was  _ James. _

They watched Hinata as he spoke, it was too loud around them to hear was he was saying, but they could see his expression change a lot. He finally ended the call with a distant expression on his face. Just before he was going to walk back over, his phone rang again, and he glared at it then answered. This call was much quicker, and ended after a few words. Hinata hung up, sighed, and walked back over to the table with a smile plastered on that didn’t look right to Kageyama.

“What was that about?” Tanaka asked.

“Oh, it was my friend from America, James, I wrote about him. Then my dad called, he wants me to come home,” He said, adjusting the beanie on his head and looking around. “They get worried, you know?”

Tanaka and Noya nodded, but Kageyama stayed silently, remembering the argument he had heard. 

“All right, we’ll see you soon okay?” Noya grinned, standing up and slapping his hand on Hinata’s back, causing him to step forward a bit. He nodded and said bye to both of them, who walked off together.

“I’ll walk you home,” Kageyama said, standing up and walking in the direction of the main road.

“You don’t have to-” Hinata started, but Kageyama looked back with a face that left no room for argument. 

The walk back was silent. Uncomfortably silent. They usually joked around or raced each other, but today they didn’t. Kageyama felt a tug in his chest, wanting things to be the way they used to, but he reminded himself this was no one’s fault, and it was something they had to deal with.

“Does it hurt?” He asked, looking straight ahead.

“Huh?” Hinata raised an eyebrow, then his eyes flickered to his leg and he looked down. “Oh. Not really. Well, sometimes. I forget it’s gone, and I’ll push myself too hard,” Hinata then looked up, a bright look in his eyes. “But I can play volleyball! As long as I take the prosthetic off when I’m done and rest my leg for a while.”

Kageyama watched Hinata’s face for a moment while they walked, and turned away before his face could turn red, “Good.”

They kept walking quietly and soon they were at Hinata’s house. Kageyama watched him walk up the short path to the steps before Hinata stopped and turned around. “I’m sorry I didn’t come see you sooner. I was nervous.”

Kageyama studied Hinata’s face, he looked sincere and… insecure? “I was nervous too. That things would be different.”

“It won’t be, right?” Hinata asked, eyes wide.

He almost smiled. The corner of his mouth lifted and he reached towards Hinata’s head to playfully flip off his beanie, only to have Hinata flinch away from him. Kageyama froze, his hand suspended in midair. Hinata’s eyes widened. “I- sorry, I didn’t… er. See you, Kageyama,” He rushed out, quickly disappearing into his house.

Kageyama stood there for a full minute, replaying Hinata flinching away from him over and over in his head before he left. He had leaned back, his eyes squeezing shut, his arm starting to come up to his defense. What the hell?

 

X x X x X

That night when Kageyama was laying in bed he start to think that something really bad must have happened while Hinata was in America.


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry if I offend anyone with my lack of prosthetic knowledge.  
> The type of prosthetic Hinata has doesn't actually exist to my knowledge, I sort of halfway made it up so it would be unique to him.

Three days had gone by without any message or call from Hinata. He didn’t know why Hinata not texting him made him so antsy, but he found himself checking his phone every few minutes in hopes of seeing a new message from the redhead.

So when he was eating lunch by himself and his phone suddenly went off, he almost fell out of his chair, grabbing for it frantically. To his (slight) disappointment, it was a message from Daichi to the group.

 

**Sawamura:** Anyone free to play volleyball today?

**Nishinoya:** WHERE + WHEN

**Azumane:** im free 2day

**Sawamura:** 13:00 at the public court?

**Sugawara:** i’ll be there!

**Yamaguchi:** tsukki and i will b there

**Nishinoya:** SEE U THERE

**Tanaka:** ME 2!!!!!

 

Kageyama glanced up at the clock by the door. It was 12:03 right now so he’d have time to get ready and be there to help set up the net and everything. A small part of him hoped that maybe Hinata would reply to the chat, or at least show up.

 

**Kageyama:** i can make it

**Yamaguchi:** any1 have an extra pair of shoes? mine are soaked

**Nishinoya:** HOW DID THAT HAPPEN

**Yamaguchi:**...dont ask

**Sugawara:** u can borrow mine :)

**Yamaguchi:** thx!!!

**Ennoshita:** i’ll b there but Nartia and Kinoshita are out of town

**Sawamura:** i can b there early 2 set up

**Kageyama:** i’ll probably be early too

 

Kageyama silenced his phone and put it face down on the table while he finished eating, then he washed his dishes and put them away. Deciding it was best to leave his phone on the table so he wouldn’t be tempted to check it every other minute, he ran up stairs and got in the shower.

When he was done he put on a pair of sport shorts and a tee shirt then checked the time - 12:29 - he decided just to leave now because he didn’t want to wait around doing nothing, so he left the house and got on his bike.

Daichi was already there tying up the net when he pulled up and leaned his bike against the fence.

“Kageyama! Help me with this,” Daichi waved to the setter. Kageyama nodded and picked up the other end of the net to start tying it up.

“So… did you see Shouyou?” Daichi asked.

“Not that day when we played volleyball,” Kageyama paused, “But Nishinoya, Tanaka and I saw him in the shopping district.”

Daichi didn’t respond, but he finished tying up the next and moved over the the bag of volleyballs he brought. “How is he?”

“He’s… okay, I guess,” Kageyama didn’t know how to respond, really. Hinata’s okay, but Kageyama wasn’t sure how okay he actually was.

Over the next fifteen or so minutes, the rest of the team showed up who said they were coming and Noya started yelling about seeing Hinata in the shopping district. Sugawara asked how he’s been and Ennoshita asked if he was coming back to school for the second term. Questions were being fired at Tanaka, Noya and Kageyama, although most of the questions they didn’t know how to answer.

“He looks so cool with his lip piercings, and - oh yeah! He dyed the tips of his hair black,” Noya exclaimed after Yamaguchi asked how he looked.

“He’s a little bit taller too,” Tanaka said, hold his hand level to about Hinata’s new height. “Said it had something to do with all the stretching.”

“Otherwise, he’s basically the same old Shouyou!” Nishinoya grinned, then his face turned thoughtful and he said, “There was something a little off about him though, but I don’t know what it was…”

Kageyama looked up from the ball he was holding, “You think so too?”

Nishinoya nodded, “Yeah definitely, but I don't know why.”

So Kageyama wasn’t the only one who noticed; it wasn’t something he imagined. If even Noya caught on to it, could it be something obvious that he wasn’t thinking of? Or… did it have something to do with Hinata flinching away from him the other night? That was something he didn’t necessarily want to share with everyone though.

“All right guys,” Daichi clapped his hands together. “Suga and Kageyama you're setting for opposite sides, everyone else pick a setter. No, Tanaka you can’t be on the same team as Noya because you never take these matches seriously. Asahi and Tsukishima on different teams - yes, I do know that their combined height gives them an advantage, _that’s why I’m separating them._ ”

After everyone was on their own team (Sugawara, Asahi, Nishinoya, Yamaguchi and Ennoshita against Kageyama, Tanaka, Daichi and Tsukishima - _“Yes, Tanaka, the teams are fair.”_ ) they began playing.

X x X x X

After the first set of the game, in favor of Suga’s team by a close margin, they all stopped to take a break. Kageyama sat on one of the benches at the edge of the court, drinking out of his water bottle while most of the others were gathered in groups of twos and threes talking to each other.

He was about to take another drink when suddenly Suga shouted, “Shouyou!” He dropped his bottle and looked around quickly while most of the team did the same. His gaze landed on the other side of the fence where a shocked Shouyou stood. He looked like he had just been passing by, his hands in his pockets - now he was looking around the team with wide eyes.

“Hey, Shouyou!” Nishinoya jumped up and waved, “Come here!”

Hinata bit his lip and looked around the street for a minute before a soft smile settled on his lips and he walked into the fenced off volleyball court. Tanaka was the first one to him, swinging an arm around his shoulders and pulling him towards the group.

Kageyama watched as everyone crowded around him, hugging him and laughing and asking questions, and poking at his piercings. He looked happy, if not a little uncomfortable, but Kageyama was waiting to see something like the other night. Hinata’s not flinching away from anyone, so was it just Kageyama? Or something else?

Decided to test it out, Kageyama stood and walked over to the others. Hinata was in the middle of answering one of Suga’s questions and Kageyama reached out and put a hand on his shoulder. He didn’t flinch, but he turned and smiled, “Hey Kageyama.”

“How are you feeling?”

“I finally fixed my sleeping schedule and I’m getting used to the timezone again, so I’m not super tired anymore,” He smiled.

“Your hair looks really good, did you dye it yourself?” Yamaguchi asked, reaching out and touching his hair.

“Yeah! James and I dyed our hair to match just before I left America!” Hinata explained excitedly. “I gave him one of my hoodies and this is the jacket he gave me,” Hinata gestured to the cropped leather jacket he was wearing.

Kageyama felt his insides curl in jealousy. He really hated James.

“Do you want to play volleyball with us? Our teams are uneven,” Daichi suggested, tossing the ball he was holding to Hinata.

He looked hesitant, spinning the ball in his hands, “But - I haven’t played in months, I’ll just get in the way.”

“It’s just a practice game, the score doesn’t matter,” Asahi said.

“Yeah,” Sugawara agreed, “And since you haven’t played in months, now is the perfect time; before school starts!”

Hinata bit his lip, “I’m not even dressed right though, I’m wearing jeans.”

“Aw, just one spike!” Noya encouraged, taking the ball from him, tossing it in the air and catching it a few times. “I will feel great!”

When Hinata still didn’t answer and Noya tossed the ball up again, Kageyama reached out and grabbed it from the libero, then said to Hinata, “Come on, I’ll toss to you.”

Every looked at Hinata expectantly as a grin slowly spread across his face, “All right. Okay, fine. I need to loosen the suspension on my leg though.”

He suddenly dropped to one knee and pulled his pant leg up to his thigh. This was the first time any of them had seen his prosthetic in person and everyone was quiet for a moment besides Tanaka’s whispered, “Whoa.”

Hinata seemed to realized that he just showed everyone his mechanical leg and he looked up quickly, his face reddening in embarrassment. The leg was the same size as his real one, so it took the shape of his calf in the back, but it was made of thin black and silver crossing metal with a pole in the middle. At his knee was solid metal with a circular dial on the outer side.

Then Suga says, “Wow, Shouyou, that looks really cool,” and everyone was suddenly asking questions, and telling him how awesome it was and Hinata was grinning and blushing.

“I was afraid you guys would treat me different,” He admitted shyly.

“You’re still Shouyou, just now you’re a cyborg!” Tanaka shouted before calling him Cyborg-chan over and over until Asahi hit him on the back of the head.

“How does it work?” Kageyama asked.

Hinata looked up at him, then at the leg. He pointed to the metal framing. “It’s sort of a new technology for athletes specifically,” He wrapped a finger around the thinner metal. “The metal is a bit more flexible so when I land after jumping it doesn’t hurt the rest of my leg or break.”

Then he poked a finger through the outer shell and touched the metal pole. “This is has the suspension, it's part of the pylon. If I’m going to be jumping I need to loosen this,” He moved his hand and pointed to the dial at his knee. “So my legs don’t buckle when I land.”

“Why not keep it loosened all the time?” Ennoshita asked from behind Daichi.

“I could, but it wears down the mechanics inside faster and makes me walk funny sometimes,” He laughed shyly. Then he grabbed the dial and tugged on it harshly so it turned and the metal pole slid down and back up slightly. Hinata stood up and took off his jacket so he was just wearing a white tank top and tossed it to the side of the court along with his beanie. “Ready?” He grinned at Kageyama.

Kageyama nodded and walked to the right position, handing the ball to Daichi to throw to him. Hinata stood at the back of the court, stretched his legs quickly, then his arms. He gave Daichi a thumbs up when he was ready.

Daichi threw the ball over Kageyama’s head. The setter kept his eyes on the ball, but saw Hinata rush to the right side of the court at the same time. The ball hit his fingers, and he tossed it up in the air right as Hinata jumped.

Then Hinata landed, his right leg bent slightly more than the left. The ball landed off the court on the right side.

Hinata laughed, his face red. He missed. “Sorry,” He apologized, his hand on the back of his neck.

“Don’t mind, Shouyou!” Nishinoya shouted.

“I think I loosened this too much, I felt the pylon slip down too far right before I jumped,” He quickly crouched down, pulling his pant leg up again. He ducked his head and Kageyama could tell he was embarrassed as he fiddled with the dial. Kageyama walked over to him and crouched down, halfway hiding him from the rest of the team.

“Sorry,” Hinata chuckled softly, his head still bowed.

“It’s okay,” Kageyama said. “It’s just something we’ll have to deal with.”

Hinata sighed and let go of his leg. Quietly, he said, “I don’t want us to have to _deal_ with it.”

“You have to get used to playing volleyball with it is all. Lets try again,” he said, standing up.

Hinata looked up at him and gave him an odd look, before fixing the dial again and standing up, his pant leg dropping back down. He walked to the back of the court and nodded, “Okay, again!”

Daichi tossed another ball to Kageyama, who tossed it into the air, right into Hinata’s hand, who slammed it down on the other side of the court, then landed. The redhead stared down at his hand in astonishment while the guys on the side of the court cheered for him.

Hinata looked up at Kageyama with a grin, his eyes full of emotion. He ran at the setter and hugged him tightly, causing Kageyama to turn a shade of red. Hinata let go and began talking with the others as they made their way onto the court.

Kageyama was left with a fluttering feeling in his stomach, and his skin prickled when Hinata had been pressed against him.

Maybe things would be okay after all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hinata's leg is a combination of these two prosthesis(replace the word DOT with a period):  
> 3dprintingindustryDOTcom/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/exo_leg_side.jpg  
> media.ottobockDOTcom/prosthetics/knees/aqualine/images/aqueline_aqua-foot_split-toe_1_1_teaser_fallback.jpg
> 
> The first one is the framing and the second one is just the metal pole in the middle which helps with his suspension.
> 
> Also, am I writing Kageyama okay? He feels really OOC in this chapter... leave me a comment and let me know!


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ohmygod i hate this chapter so much it's so stale i'm so sorry
> 
> i mean we're getting to the romance soooo....

Being able to spike the ball again had encouraged Hinata to play with them, and naturally, he played on Kageyama’s team. It took him a while to get back in the swing of things, having not played in almost seven months and not being completely used to playing with a prosthetic, but he did all right.

Kageyama felt a little bad for making him play because he seemed to get tired quickly, but it was worth it to see the elation on his face when he hit a really good spike.

For about half an hour he played fine, but he had to keep sitting out to rest for a few minutes and he seemed to keep getting more and more frustrated about it. Eventually, after about two hours of on and off playing he had to stop.

Just after a pretty impressive slide spike he landed hard and let out a groan of pain. Daichi had to tell him to sit out before he injured himself. Hinata walked to the side of the court and sat on the bench, looking angry. The rest of them kept playing and Hinata slowly lost his anger and began to cheer them on, shouting things like “Don’t mind!” or “Nice receive!”. He kept rubbing at his thigh where the prosthetic started but he didn’t look like he was in too much pain.

It was around 18:30 when they started to finnish up. They were all getting tired and wanted to head home for dinner. Kageyama walked over to the bench and sat down next to Hinata who handed him his water bottle.

“See you around Shouyou,” Nishinoya said, walking by and ruffling Hinata’s hair. 

Tanaka and Asahi were following Noya, and Asahi said goodbye followed by Tanaka, “Send a text once in awhile, yeah?”

Hinata smiled and agreed, waving as they left. Most of the team still was milling around cleaning up or talking. Hinata turned to Kageyama and asked, “Wanna go get ice cream?”

“Yeah,” He replied, eager to have time alone with the middle blocker. Hinata stood up and pulled on his jacket and stuffed his beanie in his pocket, then held out a hand to Kageyama, who took it and stood up.

“Are you two leaving?” Sugawara asked, walking over to them.

“We’re going to the ice cream shop a few blocks from here,” Hinata smiled.

“See you around then, and Shou-kun, don’t be afraid to call or something okay, it’s nice seeing you,” Suga hugged Hinata quickly and pat Kageyama shoulder. 

“Tell the others bye for us,” Hinata said, grabbing Kageyama’s wrist and pulling them towards the gate in the fence. Suga waved at them and turned back to the others.

“That’s your bike, right?” Hinata pointed.

Kageyama nodded.

“Get on then, I’ll stand on the back,” Hinata grinned, and Kageyama felt his stomach tighten. He turned and grabbed his bike then swung his leg over it, holding it upright with one foot on the ground and the other on the pedal. He felt Hinata’s hands on his shoulders and his bike shifted as Hinata stood on the pegs sticking out of the center of the back wheel. His arms wrapped loosely around Kageyama’s neck and Hinata’s chest pressed into his back. “Okay, I’m ready,” He said, his breath ghosting over Kageyama’s cheek.

Kageyama felt his heart speed up and he pressed down on the bike pedal, taking off down the street as fast as he could. He felt Hinata’s laughter vibrating against his back, and Hinata moved his hands onto Kageyama’s shoulders and stood tall on the pegs. Kageyama looked back at him and saw him grinning, his hair blowing back off his head.

A smile tugged at Kageyama’s lips when he faced forward again. He stopped the bike next to the ice cream shop and Hinata jumped off the back, putting his hat on with a grin. “That was fun,” He said. 

“Yeah.”

“Come on,” Hinata grabbed Kageyama’s wrist again and pulled him to the ice cream window. He didn’t let go of Kageyama even as they ordered their ice cream and only did when they sat down at one of the picnic tables.

They sat quietly, not really knowing what to say for a few minutes. Hinata quietly stirred his strawberry ice cream in it’s styrofoam bowl and Kageyama twisted his popsicle between his thumb and fore finger, leaning his head on his arm. The silence was a little awkward but Kageyama didn’t know what to say. He wanted to asked about the other night when Hinata flinched, and about James and about America, but he didn’t know how.

Kageyama’s head rested on his arm on the table and he glanced up at Hinata who was staring into his bowl. The setting sun was casting a warm orange glow over Hinata’s tan skin. Kageyama traced his eyes over the fringe of fiery hair peeking out from his beanie and the light freckles dusted across his cheeks and nose. He was sure nobody else noticed the freckles, they were so pale hard to see unless he looked closely. Kageyama’s eyes roamed over Hinata’s soft jawline and down his neck to his sharp collar bones, exposed by the low collar of his shirt, then back up to his chin and over his pale pink lips.

He found himself wondering  what those lips would feel like against his skin. His cheeks and ears got hot and he quickley looked up from Hinata’s lips, tracing over the bridge of his nose and then up to his golden eyes, which - were looking  _ directly at him _ . Oops.

Kageyama looked down at the wooden table, aware his face was probably beet red, embarrassed at being caught staring. Hinata laughed and shook his head. He pushed away his ice cream and rested his head on the table to look Kageyama in the eyes.

“I’m coming to school for the second term, but I’ll need a lot of help getting caught up if I don’t want to stay back a year,” He said.

Glad to start a conversation instead of staying in silence, Kageyama responded immediately, “I’ll help you.”

Hinata giggled, his nose scrunching up and white teeth showing, “Your grades aren’t much better than mine.”

Kageyama is about to argue that (mostly true) point when Hinata’s phone suddenly rings and he holds back a sigh. They both lift their heads off the table and Hinata pulls his phone out and answers it, “Hey dad.”

Kageyama stands up and tosses his melted popsicle in the trash, then sits back down across from Hinata.

“Dad it’s barely passed 19:00, why do I need to be home so early?” Hinata’s right first rested on the table, clenching and unclenching, his jaw set tightly as he listened into the phone. “No, I was playing volleyball with-” He was cut off and sighed angrily. “I’m fine! I already told you, the doctor said I was fine to play sports.”

Kageyama felt like he was intruding, listening to this conversation but he didn’t want to leave either. 

Hinata looked angrier each time he paused to listen to his dad. “I’m not a child, I’m seventeen!” He said through his teeth. “Dad - no, I don’t…” he glanced up at Kageyama quickly, then turned away and said quieter, “Just because I’m missing half a damn leg doesn’t mean I’m helpless,” He said. “... Yes - I’m with Kageyama…No-... I’m not going to tell him that!” He bit through his teeth again, then was quiet while he listened. “Okay! All right, fine! I’m be home soon,  _ bye _ .”

He ended the call and dropped his head onto the table with a huff. Kageyama reached forward and poked the top of his head. He giggled, then sat up and sighed.

“Is everything okay?” Kageyama asked.

Hinata twisted his phone around in his hand and put his elbow on the table and his cheek against his fist. “I don’t know… he just - he doesn’t understand. He thinks I’m completely helpless and fragile and it’s so frustrating!” He gripped his phone tightly and for a moment he looked like he was going to cry, his eyes full of an emotion Kageyama had never seen on his face before.

Then he snapped out of it and stood up, all traces of sadness gone. “Anyways, I have to head home.”

Kageyama stood up too, “Do you want me to bike you there?”

“No,” Hinata waved him off, throwing out his half-eaten ice cream. “I’d be fine. It will be dark soon anyways and you should probably head home yourself.”

He really wouldn’t have minded biking Hinata home and didn’t really care that it was getting dark, his mom wouldn’t mind him being home late. But it seemed like Hinata wanted to be alone so he reluctantly said goodbye and they parted ways.

 

X x X x X

 

After getting home and eating dinner with his mother, Kageyama went to bed early but couldn’t fall asleep until almost midnight anyways. He was worried about Hinata. He knew the Hinatas would never do anything to hurt their son, but he worried regardless about how Hinata was faring mentally. He kept telling himself it was  _ Shouyou _ and he would be fine. 

Eventually he fell asleep, just after midnight.

 

Only to wake up two hours later to his phone ringing. 

Kageyama groaned at the annoying sound and scrubbed his face with his hand, then rolled onto his side and grabbed for his phone. He hit the on button and was assaulted with a bright light, causing him to yelp and drop the phone. Again he groaned, then shut his eyes and picked up his phone again and answered it. 

“Hello…?” He asked tiredly. He swears if this is Nishinoya or Tanaka calling to scream at him about a dumb anime or something again, he will kill them.

A sniffing came from the other end of the line and then, “K-Kageyama?”

Kageyama sat up quickly, suddenly very much awake. Something was wrong. He reached towards his nightstand and turned on his lamp. “Shouyou? What’s wrong?”

“Um,” Another sniff. “I just wanted t-to talk.”

“About what? Are you okay?” Kageyama asked. 

“I uh,” his breath hitched, “O-one second,” he choked out. Kageyama suddenly heard someone sobbing harshly, gasping for breath. The sound was muffled like their mouth was covered with a hand.

“S-Shouyou, are you crying?” Kageyama felt his heart speed up with anxiety.

A half-hearted chuckle broke through the sobs, “Y-yeah. I’m s-sorry for calling you this late.”

“No, don’t - don’t apologize. What’s wrong? Did something happen?” 

“Um, yeah. I - I just, I’m so sick of everything going on at home, I c-couldn’t stay, I left Natsu there and I didn’t mean to, but I can’t - the yelling, I’m so sick of it. I just had to get out and -”

“Shouyou, stop, where are you?” Kageyama asked, climbing out his bed.

“I, um,” Hinata sniffed again, “I’m in the p-park near the volleyball court.”

“Okay, stay there,” Kageyama said gruffly, pulling his shoes on with one hand then grabbing a hoodie.

“Wait, what - what are you d-doing?”

“I’m coming to get you, dumbass,” Kageyama said, leaving his bedroom and quietly making his way through the house.

“W-what? Why?”

“You called me, didn’t you? I’m not gonna leave you in some park at two in the morning,” He said, heading outside. It was cold and foggy; he hoped Hinata had a jacket or something. “Why are you even awake this late?”

“My parents and I got into another argument,” He said. “It went on for hours until I left. I’ve been walking around for about an hour, b-but I don’t know what to do. I just ended up here.”

“I’m going to be at the park soon, okay?” 

“Okay.”

He made it to the park in record time, the crisp air whipping at his cheeks and his breath coming out in short puffs of air. He dropped his bike on the moist grass at the park and looked around for Hinata. He saw him sitting on one of the swings and rushed over. The redhead was sitting in jeans and the white tank top he had on while they were playing volleyball that afternoon. Hinata had his arms wrapped around himself and was shivering. He didn’t even have his hat. It was strange to see Hinata like this, he looked so miserable and small. 

Hinata never looked small, he always seemed to take up space just by being near it.

“You dumbass, why didn’t you grab a jacket?” Kageyama said, yanking off his own hoodie and throwing it over Hinata’s shoulders. 

Hinata looked up and rubbed a fist across his eyes, wiping away stray tears, “T-thank you.” He pulled the hoodie tighter around himself and Kageyama blushed at seeing his huge hoodie engulf Hinata’s small frame.

Kageyama held his hand out for Hinata to take. “Come on.”

Hinata sniffed, “W-what?”

“You can stay at my house tonight,” He told him. More of a demand than a request.

“Okay,” Hinata said, reaching out and taking Kageyama’s outstretched hand.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> please leave a comment telling me if you like this or not...
> 
> I have ten chapters planned out so far, but theres probably going to be 12 or 13, i'm not sure yet


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What's this? Two updates in one week? Yup, I'm on holiday for the week and don't have school so I've been writing a lot.
> 
> Anyways, this chapter is the longest yet I think, at just over 4,000 words.
> 
> I also had so much fun writing this one!

Hinata reached out and took Kageyama’s hand, then stood up to follow him over to the bike. Kageyama biked back to his house with Hinata on behind him, the smaller boy resting his cheek against Kageyama’s back. When they got to his house, he took Hinata by the wrist and lead him inside.

“You’re mom won’t mind?” Hinata asked quietly.

Kageyama shook his head as they climbed the stairs to his room. “No, she loves you, remember?” Kageyama’s mom couldn’t get enough of Hinata, she loved having him over for dinner and had been asking about him during the six months he was gone.

“Yeah…” Hinata responded softly.

They stepped into Kageyama’s room and he closed the door and flicked on the light. The digital clock on the night stand blinked 2:56 am. They were both really tired, and Hinata’s sneakers and socks were soaked from the wet grass outside.

“Do you want to just sleep in my bed so we don’t have to set up a futon?” Kageyama asked. They had done it plenty of times before, after a long day, just collapsing in Kageyama’s bed. It was never weird between them, but for some reason the thought of being that close to Hinata made Kageyama’s heart speed up -  _ again _ . What was wrong with him? He never felt like this around Hinata before… he thinks. Why does he feel like this now?

Hinata looked away from Kageyama and said, “I - uh, I can make the futon up. I don’t want to - er, take up space in - in your bed.”

That was a weak excuse, and they both knew it. But something was different with Hinata and Kageyama still didn’t know what it was, so he wasn’t going to push the redhead. Though Kageyama felt a little stung that Hinata was making up excuses instead of confiding in him.

“Yeah,” Kageyama said, “Yeah, I’ll go grab one real quick.”

He left the room quickly and grabbed a futon out of the cabinet they were kept in and brought it back into his room where they set it up on the floor. Then he dug around in his closet for the clothes Hinata like to borrow when he slept over and didn’t bring his own. He pulled out his smallest pair of sweatpants and a dark blue tee shirt and tossed them to Hinata, who took his jeans off, eager to get into the warmer clothing.

Kageyama saw the whole prosthetic for the first time, where it stops just above his knee, his thigh in a black socket. Tanaka was right, it does look pretty cool. Hinata pulls on the sweatpants over his boxers and takes off his tank top.

“W- are those from volleyball today?” Kageyama asks in shock, his mouth dropping open. Hinata looks at him with an eyebrow raised, then looks down. Bruises decorated Hinata’s ribs, stomach and hips, some of them yellowing and some a newer purple color.

Hinata freezes and he quickley pulls on the tee shirt. It’s too big for him and hangs loosely around his collarbones and shoulders. “No…” He answers slowly.

Kageyama wracks his brain, trying to match the shapes of the bruises to something else, when a thought occurs to him that he doesn’t want to believe, “You - Your dad - he didn’t…”

Hinata looks up in shock and waves his hands in front of him, “N-No! Of course not!” He scratched the back of his neck, looking embarrassed. “We argue and fight a lot, but he would never... I promise it’s not my family.”

“Then… what? Someone did that to you, right?” Kageyama practically growled . If someone hurt Hinata, he would fuck them up.

Hinata sighed. “A few boys that live down the road from me, they made fun of my leg and we got in a fight. A violent one. I didn’t win.”

“When?” Kageyama asked, his face twisted. Why hadn’t he said anything! They made him play volleyball while his body was covered in bruises? How much pain had he been in?

“A few days after I got back. The first time anyways.”

“You mean this is a regular thing?” Kageyama grabbed Hinata’s wrist and pulled so that golden brown eyes met navy blue and Hinata took a step back. “You have to tell people about stuff like this, Shouyou. You can’t just let it happen!”

Hinata tugged his arm away from Kageyama, looking angry, “I can take care of myself!”

“Obviously, if you're getting in fights constantly and losing!” Kageyama was close to shouting, and he stepped closer to Hinata, forcing him to step back against the wall.

Hinata scowled at him, “You sound like my dad! I’m not a little kid, I can handle it on my own!”

“I know that, but you don’t have too!” Kageyama argued. After a moment of glaring at each other, he sighed and stepped back. “You don’t  _ have _ to do everything on your own,” he said quieter.

Hinata curled both hands into fists, “How will I be able to prove I’m fine if I can’t handle a couple of dumb kids on my own?”

Kageyama looked up at Hinata’s face again. He looked desperate, his teeth clenched but his eyes full of a emotion, as if he was looking for validation. Kageyama grabbed his shoulders, holding tightly, “You don’t have to prove yourself to anyone.  _ I  _ know that you are just as capable as you used to be. So does the rest of the team. You played volleyball today, right? You can still run and jump, and you’re still you.”

Hinata deflated, hanging his head down and pressing it against Kageyama’s chest, “But… my parents, they…”

Kageyama wrapped his arms around Hinata and hugged him tight, resting his cheek against the soft black-tipped orange hair. “Your parents are going to worry about you not matter what.”

He felt Hinata’s arms wrap around him and they stood like that for a while.

Then Hinata slowly pulled away, looking a little embarrassed, his eyes red. 

“Thank you, Kageyama,” Hinata smiled softly.

Kageyama glanced away, his cheeks warm. “You… You can call me Tobio.” His eyes flicked up and saw Hinata with a bigger smile.

“Okay. Thank you, Tobio.”

He felt his heart soar at the sound of his name flowing from Hinata’s lips like water off a cliff, as if it was the most natural thing in the world. Hinata yawned, “I’m really tired.”

“Me too,” Kageyama said, moving to sit on the edge of his bed. He began to take his shoes off, watching as Hinata sat on the futon and rolled up his pant leg to take off the prosthetic. It was a quick process and it looked like he had done it hundreds of times before. Once he was done he set it down on the floor and climbed under the blankets. 

Kageyama did the same, then reached up and switched off the light.

They lay in the dark, both lost in their own thoughts, their breathing the only sound in the whole room - when something occurred to Kageyama. He turned on his side to face the floor even though he couldn’t see Hinata.

“Shouyou…”

“Yeah?”

“Um, a few days ago, when - when I walked you home, remember?” Kageyama asked.

“Mhmm…” 

“You - you flinched away from me,” He said and was met with silence. “Was it because of the fights you were getting into? Did… did you think I would hurt you?”

Hinata didn’t respond and Kageyama worried that he had overstepped a boundary. The blanket on the futon rustled like Hinata was turning on his side away from Kageyama. “No,” Hinata said. “It had nothing to do with that. I’m sorry.”

“Don’t say sorry,” Kageyama said, flipping to lay on his back.

They didn’t talk after that, and Kageyama was lulled to sleep by the steady sounded of Hinata’s breathing.

 

X x X x X

 

When Kageyama woke up, he felt like he didn’t sleep at all. He turned over to check the time, and he was right - it was just past six in the morning. Groaning, he turned over intending to fall back asleep for a few more hours, when he remembered Hinata sleeping on the futon. He flipped over again and saw him sleeping still.

Kageyama rested his head on the pillow and watched the steady rise and fall of Hinata’s breathing. The redhead was sleeping on his stomach, one of his hands near his mouth and the other under the pillow. He looked peaceful, he face content. Kageyama could probably watch him like this forever (okay that's really creepy, but Hinata looked so  _ peaceful _ ).

Hinata’s face began to grow restless, his eyebrows pulling together and his breath hitching and mumbling something under his breath. Kageyama pushed himself up off his stomach in confusion.

“N-no…” Hinata mumbled, turning his head into his pillow, his hand grabbing for the sheet below himself.

Was he having a nightmare? About what, the fighting? Maybe about the day he lost his leg? Kageyama moved so his blankets slid off and he stepped onto the cold wooden floor.

Hinata shook his head and tensed up, “St… stop… no…”

Kageyama crouched down and put his hand on Hinata’s shoulder, feeling him flinch at the contact. He gripped the small shoulder and shook him lightly saying, “Shouyou. Shouyou, it’s a dream.”

Hinata just groaned and his face contorted into something that looked like fear and he continued murmuring unintelligible words. Kageyama shook him harder, “Shouyou! You’re safe! Wake up!” 

Hinata bolted upright, looking around frantically, not seeing Kageyama. He was breathing hard, his hands on the futon behind him, his left leg drawn up to his chest. Kageyama grabbed both of his shoulders, turning the redhead’s body to face him, “You’re safe, you’re okay…”

Kageyama watched at the fear melted off Hinata’s face, replaced by something much more raw; sadness, relief and regret. Hinata grabbed the front of Kageyama’s shirt and pulled him forward, burying his face in Kageyama’s shirt.

Kageyama didn’t know how to react until he felt Hinata’s shoulders shake and heard the quiet sound of him crying. Kageyama wrapped his arms around Hinata and held him close. 

“Shouyou…” he began quietly, hesitantly. “What… what happened to you... in America?”

Hinata gripped him tighter, his nails digging through Kageyama’s shirt and into the sides of his ribs, shaking his head. “I - I can’t…” I gasped out and Kageyama just held him tighter, lowering them onto the futon so they lay side by side.

They fell asleep again like that, wrapped in each other’s arms.

 

X x X x X 

 

The next time Kageyama woke up, it felt like he’d never slept better. 

And then he realized Hinata was still wrapped tightly in his arms. His face heated up as he pulled back a bit to see the redhead asleep, a soft smile on his face, his small hands loosely holding the front of Kageyama’s shirt. It felt... kind of nice to be so close to Hinata. When they shared a bed before they usually slept with their backs to each other or fought over the blanket, but sleeping like this was different. 

His heart skipped a beat remembering the events that led to them being in this oddly comfortable but compromising position. Kageyama carefully pulled his arm out from under Hinata and gently placed the smaller boy’s head down on the pillow. Once he wasn’t in danger of jostling Hinata, Kageyama stood up and cracked his back, then looked over at the digital clock. 

Well shit, it was 12:25, midday.

Almost immediately after stepping away from the futon, he heard Hinata yawn and looked down to see him sitting up. Kageyama was glad he had already gotten up, it would be a little awkward if they had both woken up while still tangled together. Hinata rubbed his eyes and glanced up at Kageyama, who almost laughed at the horrible bed head he had going on.

“What time is it?” Hinata yawned again.

“Past noon,” Kageyama answered. “My mom is already at work. Do you wanna shower? You can borrow more of my clothes.”

Hinata nodded. “Yeah, if you don’t mind.” He shifted and grabbed Kageyama’s desk to pull himself into a standing position, balancing on his left leg and steadying himself by holding the desk.

Kageyama suddenly realized that Hinata probably had a chair in the shower he used at home, and felt embarrassed for not thinking of it. “Do you need- ah, will you be able to-”

“I’ll be fine,” Hinata said with a smile. “As long as I don’t take too long I can balance. And your shower has that bar in it I can hold onto.”

“All right,” he moved to his closet and found a pair of sport shorts with a drawstring that would probably be small enough and another tee shirt, this one white. He handed them to Hinata, “There’s a towel in the bathroom you can use.”

“Can I - um, will you help me move to the bathroom?” Hinata asked, tangling his fingers in the curls around his neck. “I have a crutch at home I usually use to get around…”

“Yeah, yeah of course,” Kageyama reached for Hinata then hesitantly pulled back, “Er, how do you want to do this?”

“You could… um, just lift me up?”

“Okay,” He said, then stepped forward again.

Hinata wrapped his arm around the back of Kageyama’s neck and Kageyama put his arm across Hinata’s back. Then he swiftly bent down and lifted Hinata up bridal style, aware of the flush creeping up his neck. Hinata shifted in his arms around Kageyama’s neck. “I’m not too heavy am I?”

“Of course not, dumbass,” Kageyama grumbled, trying not to look down at the face that was only a few centimeters away from his own. He walked out of his room, through the hallway and into the bathroom, then set Hinata down so he was sitting on the side of the tub. “Just… yell if you need anything okay?”

Hinata smiled at him, “Yup. Thank you, Tobio.”

Kageyama’s hands twitched and he murmured a quick, “No problem,” before leaving the bathroom and closing the door behind him. He sighed. This was bad, every single time Hinata touched him or smiled like that, or even said his name, he had to fight a blush and tell himself to calm down.

Damn that guy for being sunshine incarnate. 

 

Fifteen minutes later, Kageyama heard Hinata call for him. His first instinct was immediate panic, everything that could have possibly gone wrong running through his head, until he bust open the bathroom door and Hinata was sitting on the edge of the tub again, fully dressed (again, the shirt was too big and hanging loosely off his shoulders, but it looked like the shorts were working). 

“Will you carry me back?” He asked sheepishly.

Kageyama nodded and lifted Hinata up again, carrying him into the bedroom and sitting him down on the bed. “Thanks,” He said, reaching onto the floor to grab his phone. “I’m going to call my mom and tell her I’m here, I don’t want her worrying.”

Hinata’s mother was similar to Kageyama’s in the way that the orange-haired woman absolutely adored Kageyama, loved when he came over and trusted him to look after her son.

“Okay. I’m going to take a shower, I’ll be quick,” He said, grabbing his clothes and heading out of the room. 

It took him barely ten minutes to finish, then he quickley dried off and dressed then walked back into his room, rubbing his hair with the towel. Hinata had already folded up the futon and now had a hand on the wall and was leaning down adjusting his prosthetic. When he noticed Kageyama he looked up and grinned at him.

“What are you so happy about?” Kageyama asked, pulling the towel off his head.

Hinata shrugged, standing up straight and leaning onto his prosthetic to make sure it was secure, “I’m just happy to be here with you.”

Kageyama threw the towel at Hinata’s face. Damn him. Hinata just laughed and pulled the towel away from himself and dropped it onto the floor. 

“Are you hungry?” Kageyama changed the subject quickly. “I can make lunch for us.”

“Yeah,” Hinata said, practically bouncing over to him while he walked out into the hallway. “What do you have to eat?”

“I dunno,” Kageyama responded, making his way down the stairs. “We have miso soup leftover but I don’t know how much.”

“Hmm… Do you have any pasta?” 

“Probably.”

They walked in the kitchen and Kageyama began opening cabinets until he found an unopened box and held it up, “We have soba noodles.”

“Ooh,” Hinata said, grabbing the box and looking at it. “Do you know how to make sansai soba?”

“I think so,” he responded, opening up the fridge to check for ingredients. “We don’t have any mochi though.”

“We can make it without.”

Kageyama nodded and pulled out a pot to fill with water, then set it on the stove to heat up. When he was done he turned around and leaned against the counter, facing Hinata who was sitting on the table swinging his left leg back and forth. Hinata grinned at him.

Kageyama crossed his arms and tilted his head a little.

Hinata copied him for a few seconds then laughed. Kageyama just rolled his eyes, but the corner of his mouth twitched up - almost a smile.

“Let’s listen to music,” Hinata said, tugging his phone out of his pocket. “What’s your favorite song?”

Kageyama shrugged. “I dunno. What songs do you have?”

“A lot,” Hinata said, sliding his thumb across his phone a few times. “James showed me a bunch of different bands because we listened to music a lot when we exercised. There’s this one band I really like - I have tons of their songs.”

Ugh. James again. Kageyama wished he could meet that guy and punch him in the face simply because he didn’t like hear Hinata talk about him. Also maybe because he was a little jealous but he wasn’t going to tell anyone that.

“This one’s my favorite,” Hinata said, tapping on his phone then turning up the volume. He set the phone on the table beside him.

A fast-paced rock beat began to play through the small speakers that surprised Kageyama momentarily. He always thought Hinata listened to pop or something. Hinata was tapping his fingers to the beat on the table between his thighs, looking sideways down at his phone.

Kageyama watched him begin to mouth the lyrics that rang through the rough beat in the background.

 

_ You’re... a... mess... _

_ tangled with your confidence, _

_ you think you haven’t sinned. _

Hinata looked up expectantly at Kageyama, “Do you like it?”

Kageyama shrugged and Hinata jumped off the table, the prosthetic making a  _ clack _ sound on the wooden floor.

“That’s ‘cause you’re just standing there looking grumpy,” Hinata said, then tugged on his forearms, forcing him to uncross them.

“I’m not looking grumpy, this is my face.”

Hinata laughed. “Then smile for once, you did it earlier - just barely,” Hinata pulled him forward so he wasn’t leaning against the counter anymore. “Dance with me.”

“What - why?”

“It’s fun!” Hinata grinned, bobbing his head to beat of the music bouncing on the balls of his feet, still holding Kageyama by the forearms.

“You’re weird,” He said and Hinata just laughed again and moved his hands down to hold Kageyama’s hands, pulling one towards himself and pushing the other back then alternating so Kageyama swayed with him. 

 

_ Well I know you lay in bed, _

_ Contemplating your own death. _

_ Well just look at what you’ve done, _

 

Hinata grinned and Kageyama couldn’t help but smile at that. 

“There you go!” Hinata said happily. “I like your smile.” He let go of Kageyama (whose heart was flipping in his chest) with one hand and lifted the other above his head, spinning around quickly with a giggle.

 

_ Don’t you dare forget the sun, _

_ love... _

 

A laugh escaped Kageyama’s lips and Hinata’s face lit up like it was the best thing he had ever heard. Hinata slid his feet backwards, holding Kageyama’s hands in his, their arms stretched out between each other. Hinata slid his hands up Kageyama’s forearms and held him by the back of his biceps, then swung him around so they swapped places. 

Kageyama smirked and tugged his arms backwards so Hinata was forced to stumble forward, but their feet got tangled together and Kageyama fell back against the table, his feet slipping forwards so he landed on his rear, dragging Hinata down with him. 

Hinata landed on his knees between Kageyama’s splayed legs, one of his hands still gripping Kageyama’s bicep and the other on his shoulder. He giggled and tilted his head to look up at Kageyama’s embarrassed face.

They locked eyes and froze, realizing how close they were too each other. Kageyama felt his heart pounding in his chest, and watched a faint blush creep onto Hinata’s cheeks. The music faded away and all Kageyama could hear was his own heartbeat in his ears as he searched Hinata’s golden brown eyes. His own eyes fell to Hinata’s pink lips, only a few centimeters away from his own. Where hands on his shoulder and bicep were made his skin feel like it was on fire and he swears he could hear Hinata’s heart beating with his own. Then they were both leaning closer to each other and Kageyama could feel Hinata’s breath ghost over his own lips and his eyes were drifting shut -

Then the boiling water in the pot started to bubble over, crackling and sizzling against the metal of the stove.

“Ah shit!” Kageyama jumped up, cracking his head against the table and tripping over Hinata as he quickley turned the heat down on the stove then dumped the box of soba in. He grabbed a spoon and took an excessive amount of time to stir the pasta in while he tried to get his thumping heartbeat to slow down and his face to get back to a normal color. 

Had they really been about to… no way. There’s no way that Hinata’s grip on his shoulder had tightened and he had leaned in to meet Kageyama and… wow. They had been so close. Does that mean… Does Hinata get the same fluttering feeling in his chest when he sees Kageyama? Does his heart speed up everytime they touch too? 

Kageyama took a deep breath and slowly let it out, then turned around. Hinata was sitting on the table again looking down at his phone in one hand and twisting one of his lip piercings with the other. Kageyama leaned against the counter again and Hinata puts his phone down and his hands on the table behind himself, leaning backwards.

“So…” Kageyama started. 

“So…” Hinata copied, then raised an eyebrow. 

“You keep talking about James,” Kageyama takes great interest in picking at his nails, but keeps talking. “Did you… were you two like… together…?”

Hinata burst out laughing and Kageyama felt embarrassed for even asking, but he wanted -  _ needed _ \- to know. Hinata just shakes his head, grinning, “No, oh man, no way.”

Kageyama breathed a quick sigh of relief, feeling like a weight had been lifted off his chest. No more competition there… he hoped. Other than the slight building jealousy each time Hinata mentioned the guy, but at least Kageyama had the reassurance that nothing had gone one between them, as selfish as it was.

“No,” Hinata was saying. “He was a lot more like… a brother? I guess. He was just a really good friend, and helped me through… a lot.” Hinata looked down at his hands and bit his lower lip lightly. 

Kageyama turned back to finish with the pasta. He wasn’t sure what the implications of ‘a lot’ were but he had a horrible feeling in his gut that there was heavy baggage that went along with those two simple words.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The song they are listening to is "Don't you Dare Forget the Sun" by the band Get Scared. It's one of my favorites and the one line about the sun makes me think of Hinata.
> 
> What do you guys think? Leave a comment and let me know!


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you noticed the chapter count, I finally outlined all the chapters and it comes to fourteen, but Chapter 10 and 11 are going to be super long, so that's good.
> 
> This chapter is pretty long too. Oh, and sorry if it switches tenses somewhere, while I was writing I accidentally switched into present tense but I think I mostly fixed it, but if you do come across anything, sorry about that!

They had finished eating lunch a while ago and after fighting over which video game they were going to play, finally settled in front of the TV to play Mario Kart, which Hinata sucked at immensely considering Kageyama rarely ever played. Somehow Hinata was convinced he was doing great though, and with the smile he had on his face, Kageyama wasn't going to argue.

“Ha! I’m ahead of you!” Hinata shouted, pushing Kageyama’s arm to try and sabotage him.

“No you aren’t! I’m a lap ahead!”

Hinata pouted for a second then lurched forward and unplug the system. “I’m bored with this game let’s play something else.” He crawled over to the stack of games.

“Wha- don’t be a sore loser,” Kageyama said, wrapping up the game controller and putting it down.

“I’m not!” 

“Yeah, okay. That’s why you unplugged the system.”

Hinata looked over his shoulder with a pout and kicked his left leg back, with Kageyama dodged easily, then gave him an  _ are-you-serious _ look. Hinata stuck his tongue out, then said, “You barely have any games.”

Kageyama crawled across the floor to sit next to him, “Because I never play video games.”

“That’s boring.”

“No it’s not!” He argued. “I’m always busy!”

“Doing what?” 

“I - I don’t know!”

Hinata raised an eyebrow, “Booooring.”

Kageyama glared at him and pushed him over. Hinata laughed and rolled across the floor then climbed onto the couch. Kageyama continued sifting through his few games, holding them up to see if Hinata wanted to play. He kept saying “Nah” and Kageyama eventually gave up and sat on the couch with Hinata.

With his back against the arm and his knees drawn up, he sat facing Hinata who mimicked his position. 

“School starts in less than two weeks,” Hinata pointed out. “Have you done all your summer homework?”

Kageyama snorted. 

Hinata laughed and scrunched up his nose, “My mom says I have some assignments I need to do before the second term starts. I haven’t started them yet.”

“How do you feel about going back to school?”

“I don’t know,” Hinata shrugged, wrapping his arms around his legs, tapping on the metal of his prosthetic. It looked like it might be difficult to bend it like that, but Hinata seemed fine. “I think I’m ready to go back to school. I want things to be normal again.”

Kageyama nods, resting his chin on his knee.

Hinata looked a little sad, tapping his fingers across his prosthetic, his cheek on his knee, his eyes downcast. Kageyama wondered what was going on inside his head.

After a little while longer of sitting on the couch they played video games again, but Hinata seemed to be getting restless so they went into the back yard and practiced receiving and serving with one of Kageyama’s volleyballs.

 

X x X x X

 

Kageyama’s mom came home just before 19:00 and completely flipped out when she saw Hinata. Of course, Kageyama was embarrassed, but Hinata loved the attention. Kageyama-san was a short, bubbly person (the exact opposite of her son) with raven black hair she always wore in a messy bun and a sweet smile.

As soon as she had seen Hinata she grabbed him in a tight hug, firing questions about how he’s been and how America was, and if he was going back to school. She completely ignored her biological son, but Kageyama didn’t mind, enjoying the scene in front of him.

“I’m good Kageyama-san, and I’m playing volleyball again, which is great!” Hinata smiled, his fingers twisting the bottom of his shirt

“Aw, that’s good honey,” She was saying, “I’m so glad you’re better! You know how worried Tobio was about you? It was kind of sweet, actually, he couldn’t stop talking about yo-”

“Mom!” Kageyama snapped, completely embarrassed. Hinata just giggled and his  mother waved him off with a knowing smirk.

“Would you like to stay for dinner, Hinata-kun?” Kageyama-san asked sweetly. “I’m making pork curry.”

Hinata grinned, “Yes, if you don’t mind!”

“Of course I don’t mind,” She smiled, patting his cheek, then walked into the kitchen.

Hinata looked over at an embarrassed Tobio and grinned innocently, “What?”

“You’re annoying,” He said, then began to walk away.

“Wha-? Why am I annoying? Hey, Tobio!” He called, watching Kageyama disappear up the stairs. He grumbled and followed him. “I’m not annoying, you’re annoying,” He said, walking into Kageyama’s room.

Kageyama threw his pillow at Hinata, who caught it and threw it back.

They spent the next half hour having an angry pillow fight that quickly turned into Hinata laughing and jumping all over the place while Kageyama frantically tried to make sure he didn’t hurt himself.

Finally, his mom called them both down to eat and Hinata jumped off of Kageyama’s desk chair and they both rushed downstairs to seat themselves at the table with his mother. They both thanked her and eagerly dug into their food.

“So, Hinata-kun, how are doing? With your - er,”

Hinata smiled charmingly and said, “I don’t mind people talking about my prosthetic. You don’t have to worry about offending me or anything.”

Kageyama-san looked a little relieved, “All right. How is your prosthesis? Is it easy to move around? Does it hurt?”

“Mom…” Kageyam mumbled. He didn’t want her to bombard him with questions and make him feel awkward. He glanced over at Hinata through his fringe. The redhead was beaming, his smile wide wide as he talked to Kageyama’s mother. Well, Hinata didn’t seem bothered at all.

“It does hurt if I run too long and sometimes when I jump it feels awkward, but most of the time I forget about it,” Hinata said, then took another bite of his food.

The conversation turned to volleyball and then school, where his mother decided to scold Kageyama for not finishing his homework and Hinata shyly said he hadn’t done what he was supposed to do yet either. 

She waved her hand and said, “You’re recovering, sweetheart. Tobio is just lazy.”

Kageyama spluttered at this and Hinata laughed. His mom told him she was just messing around and he grumbled about her not being fair.

He truthfully didn’t really care about being the butt of a joke, because Hinata really seemed to being enjoying himself and it was nice to see. Kageyama thought back to last night, hearing him crying over the phone and seeing him in the middle of a nightmare. It was something he really didn’t want to see again, and it made his heart clench to think that Hinata had probably been dealing with nightmares alone for a while now.

He wished he could be there constantly for Hinata so he wouldn’t be yelled at while at home and wouldn’t have to suffer through the nightmares alone. The best Kageyama could do for him now though was make sure Hinata knew he was there if the redhead needed him.

When they finished eating Kageyama and Hinata stood next to each other at the sink washing dishes. Well, Kageyama was washing the dishes, Hinata was just trying to get the soap bubbles on Kageyama.

“Boop,” Hinata grinned cheekily, wiping soap onto Kageyama’s face.

“Hey!” Kageyama snapped, wiping his chin against his shoulder. He took a handful of bubbles and slapped them onto Hinata’s cheek. 

Hinata laughed and cupped his hands, scooping up a bunch. Kageyama jumped backwards and Hinata chased him around the table before he finally got them on Kageyama’s arm. Kageyama scraped them off himself and tried to throw them at Hinata but failed horribly. 

Hinata stuck out his tongue and went to grab for more, but his phone started ringing. He wiped his hands off on his shorts and picked up the phone off the counter, staring at the caller id with hesitance. 

“Who is it?” Kageyama asked. He peered over Hinata’s shoulder and saw ‘Dad’ at the top of the screen. He internally sighed, but knew if Hinata didn’t answer he could probably get in big trouble. “You should probably answer it.”

“Yeah…” Hinata sighed and hit the answer button and put the phone up to his ear. “Hi, dad.”

Kageya moved away politely and sat down at the table. He took out his own phone and pretended to be doing something while actually listening to the conversation on Hinata’s side of the line. Man, he really was becoming quite the eavesdropper. Probably not a good thing. 

“I called mom this morning to tell her I was here,” Hinata said into the phone, leaning his back against the countertop, his eyes on the floor and his unoccupied hand in his pocket. “I never said how long I would be here - why do you have such a problem with this, I’m just - dad, no - I’m not back talking, I’m responding to you, that’s how a conversation works.”

Kageyama would have laughed if it wouldn’t be highly inappropriate for the situation. 

Hinata pulled the phone away from his ear quickly as his dad’s voice raised over the line. He put it back to his ear, “Dad I’m sorry, I didn’t - … No?... Wait, what? I’m not even - Dad! That’s really unfair.” 

The redhead’s face contorted into anger and he took his hand out of his pocket, gripping the counter behind him, “Yeah, well if you were really that worried, you wouldn’t have let me leave the house in the middle of the fucking night and waited until now to call.”

Well, he had a point.

Hinata sighed, “Okay - Okay! Fine. All right, dad, yeah. See you soon. Bye.” Hinata tapped the end called button and Kageyama looked up. Hinata crossed his arms, “I wish I had a flip phone so I could angrily snap it shut. There’s not much satisfaction in tapping an ‘end call’ button.”

Kageyama raised an eyebrow and laughed. Hinata smiled, “You laughed again. I like that.”

“Dumbass! Don’t say stuff like that!” Kageyama’s face heated up and he looked away.

Hinata laughed too, then said, “My dad wants me to come home.”

“I figured…” Kageyama said, then stood up. “Do you want me to bring you? I don’t mind.”

“No,” Hinata waved his hand, pushing away from the counter and walking over to the table. “I’ll be fine by myself. I’m going to go thank your mom for dinner and grab my clothes, I’ll be right back.”

Kageyama nodded and watched him disappear into the hallway to go find Kageyama-san. He himself walked into the hall and stood by the front door to wait. He felt kind of bad, and didn’t want Hinata to walk all the way to his house in the dark. 

When Hinata walked back over he had his clothes from the day before in his hands. “I’ll bring your stuff back soon, if that’s okay?”

“Don’t worry about it, I’ll get them at some point,” He opened the door and they both stepped out onto the pathway. The cool air ruffled Hinata’s hair and Kageyama watched him take a deep breath of the crisp air. 

“What about my bike? You can take it if you want,” Kageyama offered.

Hinata smile softly. “It’s difficult to ride a bike with my prosthetic. Thanks, though,” he then grinned cheekily. “You’re trying to be such a gentleman. It’s okay, I like walking around at night. It’s calming.”

Kageyama blushed and turned his head away. “All right, but - text me. When you get home, so I know you made it. Okay?”

“Aw you care about me so much.”

“You dumbass, of course I care about you,” He mumbled, trying not to make eye contact with the boy who was watching his face sincerely, as if he was searching for something. What though? What was he hoping to find? Kageyama kept his face turned away pretending to find something very interesting about the wood of his front door. Hm, had that crack always been there? Wonder where that came from.

“Tobio,” Hinata said, and suddenly his hand was in Kageyama’s field of view, warm fingertips brushing across his cheek and into his hair, tilting his face to look at the smaller boy. A blush was making itself known across the tops of Hinata’s cheeks, and Kageyama was sure he looked the same. His mind was stuck on Hinata’s fingers that felt like fire against his cheek and suddenly his other hand gripped Kageyama’s shirt near the collar, gently pulling him down and Hinata was raising up to his toes.

Kageyama could feel his heart pounding in his chest as he ever so slowed was pulled down, and oh man, their lips were barely centimeters apart and he could feel Hinata’s breath on his lips and the messy orange hair brushing against his forehead.

Of course that’s when a car pulled up and Hinata’s dad called for him out the window.

They spring apart, Kageyama’s heart wildly beating in his chest, his face surely red. The suddenly lack of warmth against his right cheek made him feel empty, but then Hinata’s hand brushed his and Hinata’s index finger wrapped around his and he didn’t feel so empty.

“Dad?” Hinata called. “What are you doing here, I said I was coming home!”

“And now I’m picking you up. Get in the car,” He said, then looked at Kageyama. “Hello, Kageyama-kun, sorry to be a bother.”

“N-no, it’s fine,” Kageyama somehow managed to stutter out.

“Shouyou, come on,” The man said.

Hinata’s finger tightened around Kageyama’s briefly and it felt like his stomach was doing flips when Hinata pulled away and walked to the car. He turned just before opened the door and waved, “Thanks, Tobio, I’ll call you!”

Kageyama raised a hand halfway up to waved back and nodded numbly, watching Hinata get in the car. He stayed outside while the car drove away, then slumped heavily against the door. He took a deep breath, then rubbed his eyes with the heels of his hands. “Fucking HELL!” He shouted.

“Tobio! Language!” His mom’s muffled voice came from inside.

Kageyama sighed and clutched his shirt near his rapidly beating heart. He couldn’t deal with this, holy crap. His heart felt like it was going to burst. AGAIN for the second time in barely twelve hours they had almost kissed (that’s what happened, right?!) and had been interrupted. He heaved another sigh before heading back inside and quickly shuffling up the stairs, still clutching at his heart. 

He threw himself down on his bed face first. He couldn’t do this. It was too much. Is this what it feels like to be crushing hard on someone, because he knew for sure now that he has definitely fallen head over fucking heels, undeniably in love with Hinata Shouyou. And he didn’t have a clue what to do about it. He couldn’t ask his mom, she would freak out and immediately try to marry them off or something.

He made a split-second decision and called the first person that popped into his mind who might understand. The phone rang a few times before Sugawara finally picked up.

“Kageyama? What’s up, is something wrong?” Suga asked, his voice a bit rushed, probably worried that something had happened. What a mom. 

“No, I - I mean I don’t think so.”

“Are you okay?” 

Kageyama sighed, “Well, see, Shouyou spent the night because he was really upset and didn’t want to be at home, so I let him stay here-”

“Aw.”

“-and he had a nightmare and we ended up sleeping in the futon together and we were really close together and, um, I think I like him,” Kageyama felt his face heat up again.

Suga was quiet for a moment before saying, “That’s good, because at the beginning of the year you two didn’t really get along and-”

“No, no,” Kageyama cut him off, wiping a hand down his face. Why was this so difficult? “I mean, I really  _ really  _ like him.”

“Oh…  _ OH _ … Okay, I get it,” Sugawara says, and Kageyama can practically picture the sly smile creeping up on the older boy’s face.

“Yeah… And I think he likes me too.”

“Really? You’re sure?”

“Well… we almost kissed twice today…”

Suga promptly flips his shit, making incoherent squealing noises and laughing, “Aw, Kageyama, that’s so cute, oh man, I can’t believe…”

“Anyways,” Kageyama says quickly. “I really don’t know what to do about it and it’s driving me nuts. My heart keeps pounding and my hands get sweaty and everytime he smiles - I just… want to be  _ with  _ him.”

He can hear the smile in Suga’s voice when he says, “I think you should just let it happen naturally. If you both like each other and you’ve already almost kissed a few times, I think things are already progressing like they should be. So don’t worry about it too much.”

“All right,” Kageyama said. He turned over onto his side. Just let it happen naturally? “Okay, thank you , Sugawara-san.”

“No problem, Kageyama,” Suga said. “Tell me if anything… happens.” 

Kageyama rolled his eyes, but the thought of something “happening” had his heart jumping again. “Sure. Bye, Suga.”

“Bye Kageyama.”

He hung up the phone and buried his face in his pillow.

Fun times ahead.

 

X x X x X

 

For a few days Kageyama and Hinata mostly talked over text, until about a week before school was supposed to start, Hinata called him. For a moment, dread filled him. The last phone call had Hinata crying on the other end and waiting in the park by himself. Kageyama glanced out the window. It was midday, and nice out.

He answered the phone.

“Tobiooooo,” Hinata whined.

“Don’t say my name like that, it’s weird,” Kageyama said, making a face.

Hinata laughed. “Remember I told you I have some school work I need to do before term starts?”

“Yeah.”

“Do you want to come over and help me with it? A lot of the math work I missed and I have no clue what I’m doing.”

“Er, yeah sure,” He didn’t have a clue what to do with his math work either, but he wasn’t going to pass up the chance to hang out with Hinata. “I’ll bring the rest of my summer homework too.”

Hinata shouted in the background, followed by a thump and then him groaning.

“Are you okay?”

“I fell off my desk chair because I was spinning in it.”

Kageyama smirked and rolled his eyes. “You dumbass.”

“Just hurry up and get over here!” Hinata said.

“All right, all right. I’ll be there soon,” Kageyama sighed and got up from where he had been sitting on the floor next to his bed. “Bye, Shouyou.”

“Bye Tobioooo…”

He ended the call and put his unfinished school work in his backpack, along with the math text book he had been given - maybe it had answers in it or something. Hopefully. Then he headed outside and got on his bike.

The time it took to get from his house to Hinata’s gave him enough time to efficiently work up a bunch of anxiety about seeing the redhead. Would things be awkward? Would Hinata even mention the two almost-kisses? Should he mention it? It might be better just to not bring it up at all, Kageyama didn’t want to make things weird between them… But then again, there’s the off chance that things could get really great really fast. He still didn’t want to risk anything, though. He would let Hinata decided whether or not to bring it up, and until then act like nothing happened. 

Obviously that's the best way to deal with his feelings. Obviously. 

He knocked on the front door after laying his bike against the tall fence and was less than surprised to see the door opened by Natsu. Her eyes lit up when she saw him and she began shouting "Onii-san! Onii-san!" which altered Hinata's mother, who slid out of the kitchen 

in on her socks and beamed at the sight of him. Kageyama's mother and Hinata's mother had a lot of similarities in their personalities and mannerisms, except for Hinata-san being a bit more childish, like her son. 

"Kageyama-kun!" She greeted with a smile. She shuffled over to him, her long skirt swishing around on the floor. "Shou-chan told me he had been hanging around with you since we got back, but I haven't had a chance to see you!" 

Kageyama blushed as she pulled him into a hug; he used to come over often enough that it it wasn’t too awkward. When she pulled back she held him out at arm's length and looked him over then said, "You look great, did you grow a bit?"

He nodded shyly and she let go of him and pat his head. "Shouyou is up in his room studying right now, do you need anything?" She asked.

Kageyama shook his head, "I'm okay. Thank you Hinata-san." He bowed respectfully. She smiled and headed back into the kitchen while Natsu took Kageyama's hand, leading him into the hallway.

“I haven’t seen you in years, onii-san!” Natsu shouted. She seemed to be the only child Kageyama met that took a liking to him. He didn’t understand why, but she was adorable anyways.

“It hasn’t been years, Nacchan,” He corrected.

“It felt like it!” She said, stopping front of Hinata’s room. “When you finish doing homework with Shou-chan, come play!”

“Okay, Natsu,” He said fondly. She grinned at him and skipped away.

Kageyama pulled Hinata’s bedroom door open and stepped into Hinata's perpetually messy room, only this time the mess was schoolwork papers everywhere. Hinata sat in the middle of the mess without his prosthetic on, wearing only sweatpants. He grinned up at Kageyama when he walked in and said, "Oh good you're here, now I have an excuse to not do this work." He leaned back against his bed.

Kageyama rolled his eyes and set his bag down on the floor. Good - Hinata was taking initiative to not make this awkward. He said, "I came to  _ help  _ you with your schoolwork, not give you a distraction."

Hinata raised an eyebrow and sighed, "I figured you would say something like that." He leaned forward again and looked around the mess of papers, then picked one up. "So do you have any idea what this is?"

Kageyama inspected what looked like an Algebra sheet, but it looked like a completely different language to him.  

"Uh... No, but I brought this," He pulled the math text book out of his bag and held it up. Hinata made a happy sound and reached forward to take it. When he leaned back, the light caught off his chest and Kageyama was glad to see those bruises from before were almost completely gone. His chest was just pale skin, with the slight muscular undertone that used to be much more defined. 

Kageyama figured he had lost a lot of muscle when he couldn't walk for such a long time. The only marring on the delicate skin was a long faded purple scar on the lower half of his ribcage to the right. That's where they put in the metal bar. He glanced up and realized Hinata knew was staring, and he quickley looked down at his own papers, embarrassed.

"It doesn't hurt," Hinata said. He moved his hand up his side and pressed two fingers against the scar. "You can feel the metal, it's actually pretty cool." He scooted forward and took Kageyama's wrist, hesitantly pulling pulling him forward. Hinata met Kageyama's eyes, as if asking for permission. Kageyama gave a jerky nod. Hinata pulled him farther forward and as Kageyama's fingertips brushed the cool skin, he felt himself blush. Hinata was still holding his wrist, watching his face and Kageyama pressed down on Hinata's skin, feeling the hard bar through his skin.

"Cool," Kageyama said quietly, and Hinata let go of him. He lingered a moment longer before retracting his hand and sitting back down.

For a while, they tried to work on their homework but Hinata kept getting distracted and was doing everything he could to try and irritate Kageyama. He was in the middle of tugging on Kageyama's fringe when Hinata-san knocked on the door and opened it. "Shou-chan, I have to talk to you about therapy, do you mind if Kageyama-kun is in here?"

"Yeah that's fine. What is it?" Hinata said, setting his pencil down and stretching his arms above his head. "Did you get a new set of exercises for me or something?"

“Actually,” She said with a smile, “One of your therapists is going to come to Japan for a few weeks to make sure you’re settling into school all right, mentally and physically.”

Hinata lowered his arms from stretching, his face passive, “Oh, which one?”

“The only one who’s bilingual, Doctor Gatley. You’ll be meeting with him for an hour after school for the first two weeks, then we’ll see where it goes from there.”

Kageyama looked from the woman to Hinata to see his reaction, and was startled to see Hinata had paled dramatically. Hinata nodded and quickly looked down at the floor. His voice cracked and he asked, “When will he be here?”

“He’s hoping to get to Japan before your first day of school so you can meet with him before it starts,” She explains. “Are you all right, honey, you look a bit sick all of the sudden. Are you in any pain?”

“I - um,” He cleared his throat. “I’m fine, I think I just need to take a break from the school work for a few minutes.”

His mom nodded sympathetically, “All right, just come get me if you need your pain medication or anything.”

Hinata nodded, his eyes trained on the floor and his mother leaves, closing the door behind her with a soft  _ click _ .

Kageyama watched Hinata as his chest rose and fell with his breathing, his hands closing into fists and opening over and over. Kageyama leaned forward and poked him on the shoulder, “Are you okay?”

Hinata let out a breath and looked up, his eyes shifting and biting his lip, “I… I didn’t really get along with Doctor Gatley. At all. James didn’t either.” He looked down at the school papers and his fingers curled around the fabric of his sweatpants while he worried his lip between his teeth.

Kageyama tugs lightly on Hinata’s hair so he looked up, then said, “You know if you need anything at all, I’m here, okay?”

Nodding, Hinata leaned towards Kageyama and hugged him tight, whispering, “Okay.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am so sorry, I keep teasing you guys with almost-kiss scenes, ahaha XD  
> I promise, it's just as irritating to me (because dammit, I want them to kiss already) but have no fear, for the real thing will happen soon!


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm really unhappy with this chapter, it was hard to write and I had no motivation to write it and i dunno, it really not my best work.
> 
>  
> 
> BUT  
> I haven't really thanked you guys yet but I read every single one of your comments and they make me so happy! So thank you so much to everyone who comments, honestly you are the reason that this story is still going!

It was the first day back at school, and Kageyama was less than excited. He had stayed up past midnight trying to finish his homework, and his alarm didn’t go off so he overslept and had to run to make it to school on time. He was glad they didn’t have volleyball practice in the mornings on Mondays, only Tuesdays and Thursdays. 

He wouldn’t see Hinata until lunch, because he was going to be driven to school for a while and they wouldn’t be able to walk together. It made him a little sad, but it was for the best so Hinata wouldn’t injure himself walking over the mountain in the mornings since he couldn’t ride his bike. 

Kageyama makes it through his morning classes only falling asleep once (which is a success to him, honestly) and by the time lunch came around he went to Hinata’s classroom only to find he wasn’t there. He leaned against the wall in the hallway and sent Hinata a text.

“Kageyama!”

He looked up and saw Yachi waving at him from the doorway of one of the classrooms. “Want to have lunch with Yamaguchi, Tsukishima and I?”

Why not, he figured, and sent another message to Hinata telling him what room he was in. He sat next to Yachi, who chattered excitedly about what she did over break, but the only one who was really listening was Yamaguchi who was smiling and nodding politely. Tsukishima was engrossed in a book he was reading and Kageyama was wondering where the hell Hinata was.

“Did you get to see Hinata over break, Kageyama?” Yachi asked. “I heard he got back at the beginning of summer, I wonder how he is?”

Kageyama nodded, “He’s doing okay, he should be here today, actually, but I can’t find him anywhere.”

“He’ll be at practice right? Er-”

“Yeah, he can play volleyball still, so he’ll be at practice.”

He didn’t see Hinata at lunch, and he didn’t respond to any of Kageyama’s texts or even read them. The rest of the school day, he was antsy to get to practice and see Hinata and make sure he was okay. 

When the final bell rung, after what felt like days of waiting, he rushed out to the club room to get changed and then get into the gym. He walked through the doorway, and was relieved to see Hinata was there, with most of the team already.

Hinata was on Tanaka’s back, Tanaka holding him by the thighs to keep him up, both of them laughing while Hinata dangled a shoe in the air as high as he could get it. In front of them, a flustered looking Noya was desperately trying to reach it, one shoe on.

“Hey, Kageyama!” Suga calls, waving him into the gym with a sly smile, his eyes flickering to Hinata for less than a second.

Upon hearing the name, Hinata turned his head to look at Kageyama in the doorway. He smiled and waved, while Daichi shouted, “All right, give Nishinoya his shoe back!”

Hinata and Tanaka snickered, and they both apologized. Hinata jumped off Tanaka’s back and handed the shoe to Noya, then walked to stand by Kageyama, “Sorry I wasn’t at lunch, I had a meeting with the guidance counselor.

Kageyama whacked him on the shoulder, “Well you could have text me.”

Scratching the back of his neck sheepishly, Hinata replied, “I forgot my phone at home…”

Kageyama sighed and rolled his eyes. At least nothing bad had happened. It was just Hinata being stupid again.

Daichi clapped his hands once everyone was in the gym, “Okay, guys, pair up and do your stretches so we can run some drills. I know we practiced a couple times over break, but I hope you practiced in your own time too and weren’t too lazy.”

Hinata wrapped a hand around Kageyama’s wrist and pulled him towards the wall so they were out of the way of everyone else. Before they could start their stretches, Daichi walked over and said in a low voice, “Takeda-sensei told me you're okay to participate but you have to rest every twenty minutes or so.”

Hinata nodded, “Yeah, I know.”

“And don’t push yourself too much, okay. Nobody is going to judge you if you get tired. Just tell someone if you’re in pain or need to stop,” Daichi said.

“I know, I know. I’m fine,” Hinata looked away and began stretching his back, leaning from side to side, then bending down. Kageyama knew now that Hinata didn’t like people who thought he couldn’t handle himself just because of the prosthetic.

Daichi looked to Kageyama with an eyebrow raised. Kageyama shrugged and waved him off.

After everyone warmed up, they began running their basic practice drills then got into a few short three on three scrimmages. Everything went smoothly, and every twenty to twenty-five minutes either Ukai or Takeda would call Hinata off the court and he would leave reluctantly and sit on the bench for a little while, kneading his fingers into his thigh where the prosthetic started.

Although, after a few times Hinata seemed to get more and more agitated and each time he came back onto the court his plays were getting sloppier and more reckless, even aggressive at times. It got to the point where he was too tense to spike and kept missing receives, which just made his irritation worse.

Everyone could tell that Hinata was frustrated and tired. Kageyama winced every time he landed from a jump, because it had to hurt and Hinata was breathing hard, his fists clenched and jaw set hard.

Kageyama watched Suga say something to Daichi, then he walked over to Hinata and put a hand on his shoulder. Kageyama couldn’t hear them, but Suga lead Hinata off the court and he was kind of relieved. Hinata was really going to hurt himself if he kept it up. When Hinata and Suga are off to the side, it looked like Hinata was arguing with Sugawara, but the third year stayed calm, a hand on Hinata’s shoulder. Eventually Hinata slumps, looking upset, but nodded to something Suga said.

The two walked over to Coach Ukai and Takeda to tell them something, then Hinata left the gym, his shoulders hunched and Suga rejoined them on the court. Kageyama walked over to them after setting a ball to Tanaka. 

“Where’s he going?” Kageyama asked.

“He’s done for the day. He was getting too worked up,” Suga explained. “I’m surprised he made it two hours, but everyone could tell he was frustrated. I think he’s mad at himself.” 

Kageyama feels bad that Hinata had to leave, and doesn’t want him to have to deal with it alone, but he can’t leave practice either. The last hour he can’t really focus on what he’s doing, and when Ukai blows the whistle, letting them know they’re done for the day, he’s relieved.

“You did a great job today, but I can see where some of you still need to work a bit harder,” Ukai said. “Now head home and get some sleep, we have practice at 7:00 am tomorrow.”

They thanked him, and everyone headed to the club room to get changed. Kageyama changed quickly and left the school grounds. 

Hinata is waiting at the gate outside the school, Kageyama is surprised to see. He looked calmer, but also looked heartbreakingly sad and Kageyama hate to see him so downcast. He was sat on the ground, his left leg drawn up against himself and his arms wrapped around it. Kageyama stepped over to him and put a hand on the his head, causing Hinata to look up quickly.

“What are you still doing here, stupid? It’ll be dark out soon.”

Hinata stood up and brushed off his pants. “I have therapy fifteen minutes after practice, but since I left early today I just waited out here for you.”

Kageyama blushed, and looked away. “Where do you have therapy?”

“At my doctor’s apartment. He rented it for the month, it’s only two blocks from here, so I can walk there after school and take my prosthetic off. My dad will pick me up from there when I’m are done,” Hinata answered, his hand at his lip, twisting one of his piercings. 

“Come on, I’ll walk with you.”

“But your house is in the opposite direction.”

Kageyama didn’t answer so Hinata shrugged and they both began walking down the sidewalk. “Have you been there yet?”

“...Yeah I was there yesterday,” Hinata said quietly, kicking a rock.

Kageyama knew he had been nervous about seeing this guy since they didn’t get along while in America, “How did it go?”

“Fine.”

Nobody said anything after that until they got to a small two level apartment complex. They stood next to each other, and Kageyama realized Hinata was hesitating. “Are you okay?”

“I’m - yeah. I’m okay,” Hinata said, then turned to fully face Kageyama. “You said if I need anything, you’ll be there for me, right?”

Something was wrong and Kageyama felt dread slowly trickling into his stomach with each passing second. He started to think that maybe he didn’t want Hinata to go to therapy and instead should just come over to his house and help him fail at making soba noodles again. Anything to get that look of anguish off of Hinata’s face. “Of course,” He replied.

“Okay good,” Hinata said, looking at the ground. “I’ll text you when I get my phone at home.”

Kageyama nodded, searching Hinata’s face for some kind of sign. What was wrong? He didn’t get to figure it out because Hinata was turning towards the building, waving his hand over his shoulder. Kageyama watched him walk up to on of the apartments and knock on the door. A man opened it with a smile on his face and said something, but Kageyama was too far away to hear them.

Hinata nodded at the man and stepped into the apartment and the door was close behind him. Kageyama turned and began to walk home, not being able to shake the sense of dread lingering over him. Something felt really off about Hinata just now, and Kageyama didn’t like that he couldn’t figure out what it was.

The rest of the night he didn’t get a text from Hinata like he promised, and around 22:00 called him, only to have the call ignored. A little hurt, he put the phone away and decided to ask Hinata during morning practice the next day.

 

X x X x X

Tuesdays and Thursdays they had practice in the morning before school and although Kageyama liked having the extra practice time, he hated having to wake up half an hour earlier just to get to the gym by 7:00am. So when he woke up on Tuesday after worrying himself to sleep about Hinata, he was grumpy enough (again, but what’s new?).

When his alarm clock went off, he groaned and dragged himself out of bed, getting dressed while still half asleep and then stumbling down the stairs. The only good thing about waking up this early was being able to see his mom before she went to work. He greeted her halfheartedly.

“Tobio stop brooding,” was her response. She sat at the table, looking over a bunch of papers for her work.

“I’m not brooding,” He said, taking a sports shake out of the fridge.

She hummed and gave him a look, then shook her head. He sat down at the table and tried to pull his shoe on but his fingers lost their grip and his hand snapped up to hit himself in the face. He sighed and his mom laughed.

“Is that all you’re having for breakfast?” She asked.

Kageyama shrugged. “Yeah, but I’ll get something after practice.”

She nodded her approval and looked back down at her papers. One finger was tapping rapidly on the table and Kageyama knew that meant she was thinking about something else. He sat back in his chair, taking another drink.

“What are you thinking about?”

His mom sighed and looked up at him, setting the papers down. “I’m not sure if it's my place to say, but… is Hinata-kun okay?”

So she had noticed too.

“He looked really happy the whole time he was here,” She said. “But… I don’t know. Something seemed wrong.”

Kageyama traced the edge of the table with his finger. “I don’t know if he’s okay. I think… I think something bad happened. While he was in America. But I don’t think he wants me to know what.”

His mother nodded, pensive, “Okay. Just be there for him.”

“That’s what I’m trying to do.”

“You’re such a good boy, Tobio.”

Kageyama blushed hard and looked up at the clock, “I have to go, sorry,” he said and quickly chugged down the rest of his drink, then rushed to grab his bag. “Have a good day mom!”

His mother smiled, “You too Tobio! Oh, invite Hinata-kun over for dinner!”

“Okay!” He shouted, running out the front door.

He made it to school just barely on time, most of the others were still changing in the club room, but he already had on his practice uniform, his school outfit in his bag.

Once in the gym he began stretching, looking up every time someone walked into the gym, hoping to see Hinata. Eventually everyone showed up except for Hinata, and Daichi said they could start without him. He was probably tired and had slept in.

Kageyama pushed down the anxiety bubbling in his stomach and agreed, then joined the others to start practicing serves. 

Half an hour into the practice, Hinata stumbled through the door, breathing hard and face red.

“Are you okay Shouyou?” Nishinoya asked and everyone stopped what they were doing to look at the redhead.

He looked up from where he had hunched over, “Yeah, of course. I just ran from from a few blocks away because i accidently slept in and my dad’s car broke down, but I wanted to get here before practice ended.”

“Dumbass, you could have called!” Kageyama said. “Someone could have come an got you.”

Hinata just beamed at him. He already was wearing his shorts, and had a sweater on with the school’s logo. Once he caught his breath, he joined them in practice, but Kageyama noticed that he seemed a little quieter than usual, and a little jumpy.

Of course, Hinata was always jumpy, so Kageyama seemed to be the only one who noticed that when someone stepped too close to Hinata he would jump away quickly but subtly. 

After practice and after they got changed, Kageyama walked with Hinata towards the main building of the school for their first class. “My mom wants you to come over for dinner. Can you come after therapy?”

Hinata didn’t say anything right away, so Kageyama turned to look down at him and saw Hinata was thin-lipped and looked a little sick to his stomach, but the look was quickly changed to something lighter and more Hinata-like. “Y-yeah sure, I’ll just have to call my mom.”

“Your therapy only runs for an hour right?” Kageyama asked, stopping outside of Hinata’s classroom. “I’ll wait for you outside, okay?” He reached out to put his hand on the redhead’s hair.

But Hinata flinched away from him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Welp, this is really the last semi-lighthearted chapter of this story.
> 
> From here on out expected nothing but angst.
> 
> I am so sorry.


	11. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i am so sorry

Kageyama felt his eyes widen and his heart clench. Hinata paled, realizing that he flinched away, and immediately darted into his classroom, closing the door behind him. Kageyama stood frozen outside of the room, staring at the spot Hinata had just been. Not again. He flinched away,  _ again _ .

With a horrible feeling in his chest, he made his way towards his first class, feeling detached. That face Hinata had made, there and gone in an instant - it was pure fear. Hinata wasn’t afraid of Kageyama… was he? No, there’s no way. It had to be something else. What happened between now and the last time he had been perfectly fine around Kageyama?

As he sat down at his desk, he bit his lip, feeling something prick at the back of his eyes. Oh hell no, there was no way he would let himself feel this hurt over something like that. He just really wished that Hinata would confide in him instead of rushing away and keeping things hidden. Kageyama decided that he would straight out ask Hinata at lunch. He wanted to help, it hurt to see Hinata with a look of desperation hidden behind his smile, one Kageyama could only see in vulnerable moments like the one that had just happened.

He would confront Hinata at lunch. He had too.

 

X x X x X

 

When lunch time came around, Kageyama was restless trying to find Hinata, his hands pulling at the hem of his shirt, looking down the hall and into Hinata’s classroom. He wasn’t in there again. Kageyama turned and looked up and down the hallway, hoping to catch a glimpse of the bright orange hair.

There - Hinata was standing at the top of the stairwell, looking down.

“Shouyou!” Kageyama shouted through the overly crowded hallway, pushing through the mass of students.

Hinata’s head shot up and he spun around to see Kageyama coming towards him. His eyes widened and he rushed down the stairs, disappearing quickly. Kageyama followed him as fast as he could, but he quickley lost sight of the redhead in the hoard of students pouring into and out of their classrooms.

Why had he run? Kageyama raised a hand to his head and gripped at his hair. He didn’t know what to do, he didn’t want Hinata to push him away. He made a frustrated sound in the back of his throat, and turned to walk back up the stairs when a flash of orange caught his eye out the window.

He whipped his head around and saw Hinata out in the courtyard, walking with his head down. Kageyama spun on his heel and darted towards the building’s exit, then out into the bright light of day. “Shouyou!” He called again, using his hand to shield his eyes from the sunlight.

Hinata tensed up and ran again. Kageyama clenched his fists and ran after him, chasing him around the building towards where they used to practice receiving together. Hinata was fast, really fast, but Kageyama’s legs were longer and he quickley caught up and grabbed Hinata’s shoulder, tugging him to a stop.

Kageyama was breathing hard, his hand gripping Hinata’s arm so he wouldn’t run again. He pulled the shorter boy towards the shade and away from prying eyes, so his back was against the building and Kageyama was standing in front of him.  Hinata refused to look up.

“Listen,” Kageyama said. “I’m not… I’m not mad or anything that you flinched away, okay? Don’t be embarrassed.”

Hinata didn’t say anything, but his hands closed into fists and his shoulders hunched up like he was trying to to cry. Kageyama hated seeing him like that - it wasn’t right, Hinata was supposed to be happy. He put a hand on Hinata’s arm, a gentle comfort that seemed to help them both relax a little bit.

Kageyama continued, “I just - I don’t like seeing you upset. I want to be able to help you, but I can’t if you push me away.” He dragged his hand gently down, his fingers brushing hesitantly across Hinata’s until the redhead lifted his hand and they were held between the two, their fingers locked together. Kageyama admired the way his tan, elegant fingers contrasted with Hinata’s pale, rough ones that were so small and looked fragile despite being calloused from spiking volleyballs day after day. 

“I want to help,” Kageyama said quietly. “So please… let me.”

Hinata looks up and his lips are trembling, his eyes big and wet. A big tear falls from his eye and trails down his cheek, disappearing at the curve of his jaw. He choked on a sob, then took a step forward to put his head against Kageyama’s shoulder, turning his face into the taller boy’s neck. Kageyama wrapped his left arm around Hinata, his right arm trapped between them with their fingers still laced together.

He put his cheek on Hinata’s soft hair, listening to the quiet whimpers coming from him as he cried. Kageyama didn’t know why he was crying, but he would stay here for as long as Hinata needed him. 

Eventually, Hinata stopped shaking and calmed down, his breathing evened out, but he stayed resting against Kageyama. Their chests were pressed together and Kageyama loved the warmth. It reminded him of the morning he woke up tangled in Hinata’s arms. He blushed and let go of Hinata who was pulling away.

“S-sorry,” Hinata laughed weakly, letting go of Kageyama’s hand to wipe his eyes with his sleeve. “I didn’t mean to cry, I just-”

“What the fuck?” Kageyama interrupted, something colored catching his eye on the skin peeking out of Hinata’s sleeve. He grabbed Hinata and pulled his arm closer.

“Tobio-”

Kageyama ignored him, and grasped Hinata’s hand to keep him still, then tugged down his sleeve, revealing a dark bruise wrapped around his wrist in the shape of a hand. Kageyama’s eyes widened, inspecting the dark purple and blue blemish.

Hinata yanked his arm back and shoved his sleeve down, glaring at Kageyama, “Don’t do that,” His said harshly, holding his hand over the sleeve like Kageyama was going to rip it up again.

Event scenario Kageyama could think of was rushing through his head, some implausible, some bad and some not even making sense. He was desperately trying to match a reason to why Hinata would have a bruise like that. He remembered seeing that fist-shaped bruise on Hinata a while ago.

“Did that asshole you live near pick a fight with you again?” Tobio asked, his voice raising an octave out of anger. He told Hinata to tell him if it happened again - is that why he wore a sweater to practice? Is that why he flinched?

“N - No! That’s not - its…” Hinata’s eyes were frantically shifting around, looking anywhere to avoid eye contact. “I don’t - can’t -”

Then the bell rang, signaling that lunch was over.

“I - I have to go!” Hinata said, darting away and into the building. 

Kageyama watched him leave, knowing he wouldn’t be able to catch up to him again. Why was he avoiding Kageyama so much? If the bruise didn’t come from that other guy, then where? 

Frustrated, with no more answers than before, Kageyama trudged back inside to go to his next class. 

 

X x X x X

 

During practice, Hinata went out of his way to avoid Kageyama. He kept his sweater on to hide the bruise on his wrist, and specifically asked the coach if he could work with Suga, making up some excuse about needing to be good at working with both setters.

Kageyama was put with Tanaka on the opposite side of the net to practice spikes. The only time he got to make eye contact with Hinata was for a split second when Hinata was coming down from a spike. 

He was definitely doing a lot better than the day before, not missing a single spike and keeping a good attitude whenever he missed a receive. Ukai or Takeda would still call him out every twenty five minutes and he’d sit on the bench for a little while, massaging his thigh just above the prosthetic so he didn’t get knots in the muscle.

Until the last hour of practice, when his performance dropped dramatically and everyone noticed. He got jittery and distracted and started missing spikes. Not wanting him to get discouraged, Daichi had him work on blocking and one-touches with Tsukishima against Tanaka. Although he still seemed to be getting more and more distracted and ended up having to sit out the last fifteen minutes so he didn’t end up hurting himself or anyone else.

Once practice was over, Hinata helped Nishinoya pick up all the stray volleyballs, then rushed out of the gym to get changed in the club room. Kageyama was hoping to catch up with him to walk him to his therapy appointment, but he got stuck sweeping the floor and didn’t get out of the gym for almost fifteen extra minutes.

By the time he was changed and out front of the school, Hinata was nowhere in sight, probably already at his therapist's.

Kageyama made the decision to go wait for him. He had already asked Hinata to come over for dinner and he had agreed. He walked down the street until he saw the apartment complex. He knew he’d have to wait a while, so he sat down with his back against the cement wall fence that surrounded the building. He sent a quick text to his mom saying he was waiting for Hinata to get out of therapy and she responded saying she wouldn’t be home for another two hours anyways. 

It was already getting dark out, so he leaned his head back and closed his eyes to wait. 

A little over an hour later, Kageyama heard the door to one of the apartments open and he lifted his head to see a head of orange hair leaving an apartment. Hinata wouldn’t be able to see him because he was sitting in the shadows, and he was about to call out to him when Kageyama froze.

Hinata was crying again. He was sniffing and wiping his eyes and nose, trying to tug on his sweater. He got it over his head and adjusted his bag, walking towards the street and towards Kageyama, while still sniffling. Every worst case scenario was popping up in Kageyama’s head as to why Hinata would be crying.

Kageyama stood up quickly, “S - Shouyou?”

Hinata jumped, and looked up, startled. He saw Kageyama and quickly turned away and began to walk up the the street.

Nope. Not again. 

Kageyama was right there next to him, putting a hand on his shoulder and turning the redhead to face him. There was that look again. Absolute desperation and longing, like a void searching to be filled. It was horrible, he looked so lost, like a child. Kageyama pulled him into a hug. It helped last time, maybe it would this time.

Hinata relaxed into his arms for a few seconds, then began to squirm and pulled away, looking off the the side, his eyes downcast. 

“Come on,” Kageyama said, holding out a hand. “You said you would come over for dinner. You can text your dad or whoever to tell them.”

Hinata looked up the road, in the direction of his house, then back at Kageyama’s hand. He lifted his own hesitantly and placed it in Kageyama’s, who wrapped his fingers around Hinata’s.

They didn’t talk the whole way to Kageyama’s house, but he felt like the warmth between their two hands was enough. He saw Hinata get out his phone and send a message to one of his parents to tell them where he was.

Once at Kageyama’s house, he pulled Hinata inside and up to his room, then gently pushed Hinata so he sat down on the side of the bed. Kageyama took Hinata’s bag from his hands and set it on the floor, then pulled his desk chair in front of Hinata and sat down, taking Hinata’s pale hands in his own.

Kageyama tried to catch Hinata’s eyes, but the boy refused to look up and kept his eyes pointedly on the floor between his feet.

“Shouyou… please talk to me.”

Hinata still didn’t look up, his face pensive and eyes distant.

Kageyama sighed, “I don’t like seeing you so upset. What happened? You seemed so happy a few days ago, and then…” Kageyama trailed off. “Please, let me in. Tell me what’s going on in your head. Tell me who gave you this bruise,” He squeezed Hinata right hand a little tighter, glancing down at the bruise peeking out of cuff of his sleeve.

Hinata still doesn’t answer, and Kageyama tilted his head to the side and bent down a bit, trying to see past the orange fringe and make eyes contact.

That’s when he sees it - and  _ oh _ , how  _ naive _ he had been.

An unmistakable circular bruise was nestled right on Hinata’s collar bone, just barely peeking out the top of his sweater collar. Kageyama freezes when he sees and reached out, frantic to know if it was actually what he thought it was. He tugged down Hinata’s collar with his index finger to inspect the small bruise. 

Hinata jolts and grabs Kageyama’s wrist, pulling his hand away from the collar. Kageyama looks at his face with wide eyes and Hinata is watching him intensly, his face masked and lips thin, like he was waiting. Kageyama searched Hinata’s eyes, like the answer would be there somewhere, but it’s not and he has to ask - he  _ has _ to know.

“Is -” Kageyama eyes flick to the bruise quickly, then back to Hinata’s face. “Is that a hickey?” 

Hinata doesn’t answer, keeping his lips in a thin line and his gaze steady - and that’s all the answer Kageyama needs. He stands abruptly, his chair pushing backwards. He was going to throw up,  _ hell no _ . Hinata lowered his head again and Kageyama raised an arm to put the back of his wrist at his mouth. He was going to be sick, because that  _ wasn’t there before Hinata went to therapy _ .

And suddenly, a lot of things made sense. Hinata flinching away, the long sleeves, the bruise on his wrist, Hinata’s reaction to hearing this particular doctor would be coming to Japan,  _ “James helped me through… a lot” _ , being jumpy when people got close to him during practice, the hesitance at sharing a bed - oh no he was going to be sick.

Kageyama moved his hand away from his mouth, which now had a sour taste in it and his stomach was turning in knots. “Oh hell… I’m - Shouyou, what did he do to you?”


	12. Chapter 12

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> _"I know there's something in the wake of your smile, I get a notion from the look in your eyes."_

_ “Oh hell… I’m - Shouyou, what did he do to you?” _

Hinata ignored him again, his eyes glued to the floor and his fingers twisting in the hem of his sweater nervously. 

Kageyama reached forward and grabbed Hinata’s forearms. He tugged - maybe a bit harsher than he meant to - and Hinata finally looked up at him, his eyes big and biting his lower lip. 

“Shouyou, what did he do to you?” Kageyama asked again. He’s on the verge of yelling but he doesn’t want Hinata to think he’s angry at him. “You need to tell me, do you understand how serious this is?”

Hinata still didn’t answer and Kageyama let go of his arms. “Take off your shirt.”

“No! What-?”

Kageyama leaned forward to grip the bottom of Hinata’s cotton sweater, “Please,” His voice cracked. “Just take off your shirt.” 

Hinata hesitantly stood, then wrapped his fingers around the bottom of the shirt and Kageyama let go, stepping back. Hinata pulled off his sweater and shirt in one swift movement and dropped the clothing on the bed.

Kageyama felt his stomach drop and heart tighten at the sight of Hinata’s torso. Painful looking hickeys dotted his collarbones and shoulders, a few on his stomach and near his navel. A hand-shaped bruise was on his left bicep, matching the one on his right wrist, like someone had roughly seized him and held too tightly. Another bruise, clearly shaped as fingers, was on his hip along with scratch marks from fingernails. Kageyama gently turned Hinata around to look at his back, and saw more, deeper scratch marks on his shoulder blades and near the waistband of his pants.

“Oh God…” Kageyama stepped back and Hinata turned around, his face downcast. “What - you…” Kageyama couldn’t even form a sentence, or even a coherent thought. So many things were running through his head,  _ how could this happen to Shouyou, why Shouyou _ , he didn’t know what to do. “Are there more?”

Hinata nodded slowly and moved his hands to his waistband. He slipped his pants down so he was only in his boxers, then tugged up the legs of his underwear, above where the prosthetic started, so Kageyama could see the scratches on the sides and backs of Hinata’s thighs and more scattered hickeys. They were all too high up to see when Hinata wore his practice shorts. When he was done showing Kageyama, he quickley pulled his pants back up and looked away, embarrassed.

Kageyama had to ask, “He - Did he... ra-”

“No.” Hinata said, his voice assertive. Quieter, he added, “It’s never gone that far.”

“How many times?” Kageyama asked in a cracked voice.

Hinata doesn’t respond again and his eyes drift away. Kageyama puts his hands on Hinata’s arms, careful to avoid the bruise on his bicep. “Shouyou, this is really serious, okay? I want to help you. Please, I need to know, I can get you help.”

Hinata exhaled heavily, wrapping his arms self-consciously around his torso, “It… it started about three months into my stay in America.”

Kageyama tightened his grip on Hinata’s arms. 

“It happened a lot. Almost everyday for the first few weeks, but it got less frequent. Until the end of the sixth month, when it got really bad.”

“That long… Why didn’t you tell anyone?”

“You don’t think I tried?” Hinata shouted suddenly. “I told people he was hurting me! They said it was part of the therapy, they didn’t understand what I meant! You know how embarrassing it is?  How scary? I was afraid he’d hurt me more if I tried to tell!”

Hinata was breathing hard, his face red. He shoved Kageyama’s arms away from him, “DON’T TOUCH ME! I don’t want anyone to touch me!” He shouted, gripping at his own hair frantically.

Kageyama backed off, holding his hands up at chest level.

“James was the only one who believed me, because it happened to him too, just as frequently!”

“Okay, all right,” Kageyama said. “Calm down okay, I’m trying to help. Take a deep breath.” Kageyama took a deep breath in and let it out, and Hinata copied him, deflating and slumping forward. “You know we have to tell someone, right?”

Hinata nodded, then broke down crying again. It was worse than Kageyama had seen yet, his whole body shaking as he furiously wiped at his eyes, trying to get the huge tears to stop. His legs shook and he sat down on the bed, his shoulders hunched and head down. Kageyama moved and sat next to him. 

“Can I touch you?” He asked.

As an answer, Hinata turned to Kageyama and leaned against him. Kageyama wrapped his arms around Hinata’s shaking frame and moved so they were laying side by side on the bed. Hinata had his hands covering his face, pressed against Kageyama’s chest, and Kageyama had his arm over Hinata’s body, his fingers reaching up to gently brush through the orange hair.

Hinata tried to say something but another harsh sob wracked through him and he had to take a few deep breaths. Kageyama felt small fingers grab onto his shirt. 

“H-he said he liked how athletic and s-small I am,” Hinata choked through his crying. “Said it made me more a-attractive.”

Kageyama tense up, and pulled Hinata closer if it was even possible, like he could protect him from the horrible memories that must be assaulting him. He didn’t want Hinata to have to relive them, but if Hinata wanted to talk about it, he would listen, as much as it hurt to hear.

“He would make me take off my prosthetic so I couldn’t get away on my own,” Hinata said, his crying calming down and reducing him to hiccups and sniffs. “And - and he’d push me against a wall or onto his couch or the b-bed and kiss me really hard and touch me. It was always really scary.”

He whispered the last part, pushing his face into Kageyama’s chest, muffling his voice. Kageyama could feel Hinata’s warm breath through the his thin shirt and against his skin.

“When you ran away…” Kageyama realized.

Hinata nodded against him. “It was after a really bad one. He choked me with his hands and bit me everywhere and it hurt so bad and I didn’t know what to do. I wanted to tell someone but I was so _ scared _ . James knew what had happened and we broke out with Laura.”

“Did she-”

“He only liked boys,” Hinata said quietly. “We hid in an abandoned hotel for a week until we were found. I was required extra hours with Gatley and nobody would listen when I begged for a new doctor. I would have screaming matches with some of the orderlies and throw things and destroy stuff because  _ no one would listen _ .”

Kageyama would have listened if he was there. 

“I started ignoring everyone in return, even my mom and dad because they wouldn’t listen to me. I just felt so dirty all the time, and I still do.” A shudder ran through Hinata’s body.

He was done talking, and Kageyama didn’t know what to say. How is someone supposed to respond to a problem of this magnitude? He wanted to help so bad, to comfort Hinata, but he didn’t know what to do. All he knew was that they needed to tell someone.

“I want to help you,” Kageyama said. “What do you want me to do?”

“Just…” Hinata snaked one of his arms out from between them and wrapped it around Kageyama’s waist. “Just stay here for a little longer. You’re warm.”

So he stayed. He would stay for as long as Hinata needed him.

 

X x X x X

 

Kageyama didn’t know how long they stayed there, but eventually he broke the silence and said, “We need to tell someone.”

Hinata shook his head no, “Adults don’t believe me. I don’t want to talk to an adult.”

“Okay, it doesn’t have to be an adult right now. What about someone who can help us get to an adult?” Kageyama tried. “You know I’m not really good at talking to people other than you, so maybe someone else can help.”

“I don’t know…”

“Please Shouyou? The only way things are going to change is if you make the decision that you want help.”

Hinata is quiet for a little while, and Kageyama is about to speak again when Hinata says, “Suga-san.”

A little surprised, Kageyama lifted his head off the pillow. “You want to tell Sugawara?”

Hinata hesitated again, then nodded. Kageyama supposed this made sense. Suga was sensible, and would know what to do and who to go to about something as important as this. Kageyama wanted to help Hinata himself, but he knew he couldn’t and Hinata would need a lot of support anyways.

“Okay,” Kageyama responded. He tried to get up, but Hinata wouldn’t let go, so he struggled to get his phone from his pocket, and once he did he turned it on and found Suga’s contact number. “I’m going to call him right now.”

Hinata’s grip tightened around Kageyama, but he didn’t protest.

Kageyama tapped the call button and put the phone to his ear, listening to it ring. After a few seconds it answered, “Suga-san? Hi.”

“Kageyama? What’s up? Anything progress between you and Shou-chan yet?” He asked and Kageyama could tell he’s smiling.

“Um, I - Shouyou and I need to talk to you. Like right now, it’s really important. Can we meet in person?”

Suga’s voice completely changed, and his voice worried, “Yeah, where are you?”

“We’re at my house, do you know where I live?”

“I can be there in less than ten minutes,” Suga said, sounding like he was rushing around.

Kageyama glanced at his clock. His mom would be home soon, but she wouldn’t mind another person being over. “Thank you, Suga.”

“See you in a few minutes.”

Kageyama said goodbye, then hung up. He dropped his phone behind himself on the bed, and placed his arm across Hinata again. “Sugawara’s coming over. He’ll be here soon.”

“Okay,” Hinata said quietly. He then slowly untucked himself from his position against Kageyama, and the both sat up. “Can you hand me my shirt?”

Kageyama passed his shirt and sweater to him, and Hinata pulled on just the tee shirt, dropping his sweater on the floor. Kageyama stood up and cracked his back, it was stiff from laying in that awkward position. “I’m going to wait downstairs for Sugawara, you can stay up here if you want.”

Hinata nodded and drew his left leg up to his chest and rested his cheek on it.

With one last glance at Hinata, Kageyama left the room and made his way down stairs, the wood floors cold through his socks. He stopped in the kitchen  looked out the window. It was dark, but the streetlights weren’t on yet and he hoped Sugawara had a flashlight or something. 

A few minutes of waiting, and he finally saw Suga walking down the sidewalk holding his phone out in front of him like a flashlight. Kageyama opened the door for him when he walked up the steps to the porch. Worry must have been written all over his face, because the moment Suga was inside, he grabbed Kageyama’s arm.

“What’s wrong?” His eyes were wide and searching. “Where’s Shou-chan? Is he okay?”

“He upstairs. And - and I don’t think he’s okay. But he will be.”

“What-?”

“Come on,” Kageyama walked towards the stairs again and Suga followed him to the second floor. Suga looked hesitant and worried, but seemed to be keeping himself together, which Kageyama was grateful for and Hinata would be too. Kageyama had only barely kept himself levelheaded when Hinata told him what was going on.

If he could he would leave now, find that asshole doctor and beat the hell out of him. Only that would probably end up with himself getting arrested… so… not a good idea. Kageyama paused with a hand on his door handle and lowered his voice, “Shouyou isn't… very stable right now. So just - don’t crowd him or touch him without asking okay?”

“Kageyama…” Suga voice wavered, and Kageyama could only imagine the things going through the third year’s head. Kageyama didn’t respond because he was already opening the door to his room and stepping inside. 

Hinata was still sitting on the bed in the same position Kageyama had left him, his cheek resting on the knee drawn up to his chest and his eyes on the floor. He looked so small curled in on himself like that. And lost.

“Suga-san’s here,” Kageyama said, pulling his desk chair closer to the bed for Suga to sit in, then sat himself down on the edge of the bed. Hinata didn’t look up.

Kageyama looked up at Suga who hadn’t sat down yet, because he was staring at Hinata’s bare arms. His mouth hung open slightly and his eyes dilated, flitting over the bruise on his wrist and the one peeking out of his tee shirt sleeve on his bicep. He didn’t stare for long, because he gained his composure and sat down in the desk chair facing Hinata. 

“Shouyou? Kageyama said you needed to talk to me,” Sugawara said. He looked like he wanted to reach out to Hinata, but kept his hands on his own knees instead. He tilted his head and leaned forward a bit, trying to make contact with Hinata’s downcast eyes. “What is it?”

Hinata sighed through his nose, then unwrapped his arms from his leg and stood up. He looked nervous, his hands shaking and eyes wet as he reached for the hem of his shirt and yanked it quickly over his head. Kageyama hadn’t expected him to show Suga straight off, but he guessed Hinata didn’t know what else to do.

As soon as his shirt was off again, Suga sucked in a quick breath, his eyes going wide again, and his hand flying up to his mouth, “Oh my God,” He whispered. “Shouyou w-”

“My therapist. It happened in America too. A lot.”

Suga stood up from the chair and reached toward Hinata, but paused, “Can - can I hug you?”

Hinata was still facing the floor but he gave a quick nod and Suga wrapped his arms around Hinata’s small body, Suga’s hand resting on the back of his head. “I’m sorry, I’m so sorry,” Suga said over and over.

It didn’t last long, because Hinata began to squirm and Suga let go of him.

Just then Kageyama heard the front door opened. His mom was home. Hinata and Suga heard it too, and Hinata got a look of wild panic in his eyes, shaking his head. “N-no, your mom - she - I don’t want her to know.”

“It’s okay,” Kageyama said, standing up. “She doesn’t have to, I won’t say anything.”

He left his room and rushed downstairs, finding his mom taking her shoes off in the doorway. “Hello Tobio, how was school? Is Hinata-kun here?”

“School was fine mom, and Shouyou’s upstairs, but so is one of my other friends, I -”

“You have more than one friend?”

“Mom!” Kageyama sighed, clenching his teeth. “The vice-captain of the volleyball team, Sugawara-san, he’s upstairs and -”

“Oh, does he want to stay for dinner too?” His mom cut him off again. “We have plenty of food, go tell him he’s welcome to stay if he wants. We’re having oyakodon.”

Again, Kageyama sighed, and his mom shooed him towards the stairs, telling him that dinner would be ready quickly. Kageyama shuffled back up the stairs and into his room, seeing Hinata pulling his shirt back on and Suga holding his sweater for him.

“My mom wants me to ask you if you want to stay for dinner since Shouyou is staying,” Kageyama said, a bit embarrassed. “She said it’s no trouble.”

Suga nodded and thanked him while handing Hinata’s sweater to him. Hinata slipped it on and sat down on the edge of the bed again. Kageyama moved around him and sat down next to him then Suga sat in the chair again. “Shouyou, have you told anyone about this yet?”

Hinata shook his head, his fingers twisting together and his bottom lip between his teeth.. “Only you and Tobio.”

Suga’s eyes flicked to Kageyama’s quickly, then back at Hinata. “You know you need to tell an adult, right?”

Hinata  didn’t answer.

“Can you tell your mom?”

“She won’t believe me.”

“How can you be sure?”

“I tried to tell her that he was hurting me but she didn’t understand and it’s embarrassing to talk about. I don’t know how,” He said.

Suga tilted his head, his brow furrowed and a small pout on his lips. “I think if you sat down and talked to her she would understand.”

“But how do I do that?” Hinata asked, then muttered, “It’s scary…”

“I know, Shouyou, but you need to do this if you want help,” Suga said, sympathetically.

Kageyama felt Hinata lean into his side a bit. He was shaking. Hinata sniffed then said, “What if nothing changes? What - what if  _ he _ finds out that I told?” His voice got quiet at the last part and his eyes widened. 

“Shouyou…” Suga said. “If you’re straightforward with your mom, I promise you’ll be okay.”

Hinata was quiet for a few seconds, then he said, “I’ll tell her. Tomorrow. But…”

Sugawara and Kageyama waited for him to continue. He looking like he was arguing with himself about something. “I want-” He titled his head to look up at Kageyama. “Will you come with me? I don’t want to be alone.”

Surprised, Kageyama froze, but then nodded quickly. “Yeah, of course.”

“Okay. Good.”

It was a few minutes later that Kageyama’s mom called them all downstairs to eat. Hinata didn’t want to and kept saying he wasn’t hungry but Sugawara was able to coax him out of the room and then downstairs to table. When he finally sat down, he ended up digging into his food.

Kageyama’s mom turned out to absolutely love Suga and started insisting than more of their team needed to come over if all of them were “as charming and polite” as Suga and Hinata were. Hinata didn’t talk much, and Kageyama-san seemed to notice something was wrong so she didn’t push him into conversations, which he seemed grateful for.

After they ate, Suga had to go home so while Hinata went up to Kageyama’s room again, the first year walked his upperclassmen to the door. Before he left, he turned to Kageyama with a heavy sigh, looking like a huge weight had just settled on his shoulders.

“Are you okay?” Kageyama asked.

“Yeah, I just can’t believe none of us noticed something was going on with him,” Suga said, lifting a hand to the back of it head. “Something that serious.”

Kageyama nodded. He blamed himself for not noticing more than anyone else. Thinking back, a lot of stuff Hinata said in his letters should have raised some suspicion. “Thank you for coming over. I probably wouldn’t have been able to convince him to tell an adult.”

“I’m glad you’re here for him,” Suga said sincerely. “You know he really trusts you. I can see it in the way he looks at you.”

“R-really?” He asked, feeling himself flush red. 

Suga smiled. “Definitely.” He turned and walked down off the porch, then waved. “See you at school. Tell Shouyou he can call me if he needs to.” 

Kageyama nodded and waved back. 

He watched Suga walk down the sidewalk, the streetlights finally on so Sugawara could see where he was going, then turned and walked back inside, then up to his room. Hinata sat at the desk chair on his phone. “Do you want to stay the night?”

“Yeah,” Hinata said. “If you don’t mind.”

“Of course I don’t mind, stupid, that’s why I offered.”

Hinata finally cracked a smile. Kageyama got clothes for him out of his closet again, and tossed them to the redhead, who held them in his lap, finishing a text (probably to him mom) and then setting his phone down on the desk.

“Do you - uh, do you want a futon?” Kageyama asked. He didn’t want to make Hinata uncomfortable. 

Hinata’s eye flicked from the floor, to the bed, to Kageyama and then shook his head no. “Um, I think - I think I’ll be okay.”

“Are you sure? I don’t want to make you uncomfortable or anyth-”

“No, it’s okay,” Hinata said, looking up at Kageyama. “I trust you.”

Kageyama felt like his heart was going to explode out of his chest and he quickly turned around so Hinata wouldn’t see the blush creeping up his neck. He grabbed his own night clothes and changed into them. When he turned around, Hinata was finished changing and bending down to take off his prosthetic. 

Kageyama glanced up at the clock; it was already past 21:30 and they were both tired. He yawned and turned on the dim light on his nightstand, then switched off the overhead light, so the room was basked in a calming orange-ish glow.

Before the accident happened, when Hinata stayed over they would usually pass out at random or fight over who got the better pillow when they shared Kageyama’s bed. But now… it felt a little awkward to Kageyama. He was nervous, and he didn’t like the feeling. Maybe he was worried for Hinata or maybe it was because of his newly realized feelings for the redhead. More likely a combination of both.

Hinata was sitting on the edge of the bed again, placing his prosthetic against the wall. The leg of his sweat pants fell flat where it hung off the bed. It was a little unnerving to see only one foot protruding from his pant legs.

Kageyama crawled onto his bed, the mattress dipping under his weight. He lifted the blankets and climbed under them, then turned towards the wall and laid with his back to Hinata. He felt the mattress shift next to him, the blanket tugged gently and then the light was off and Hinata was lying with his back pressed against Kageyama’s.

They laid there in silence for a few minutes, the only sound in the room was their quiet breathing and the only light was streaming through a crack in Kageyama’s curtains onto the floor from the full moon outside. 

Hinata started shifting around and then Kageyama felt the redhead’s breath on the back of his neck, making his hair stand on end. “Tobio,” Hinata whispered, tugging on the back of Kageyama’s tee shirt.

Kageyama twisted around so he was laying on his back, his head turned towards Hinata,  just barely able to see the outline of Hinata’s face. “Yeah?”

Hinata reached across Kageyama’s chest and grabbed his other arm, pulling until Kageyama moved to lay on his side completely facing the redhead. Hinata’s took his hand, entwining their fingers tightly together on the bed between them. Then Kageyama felt a warm hand against his cheek, Hinata’s thumb on Kageyama’s temple and other fingers in his dark hair. 

“Thank you,” Hinata said in a hushed voice, “Thank you so much.”

“You don’t have to thank me for anything.”

Hinata pulled Kageyama’s head forward until their foreheads pressed together, his small hand still on the taller boy’s cheek. Kageyama closed his eyes, feeling like he was on fire where their skin connected. Hinata let go of his hand between them, and moved his arm up so he was holding Kageyama’s face in both hands.

Kageyama shifted his arm towards Hinata, but stopped quickly, his fingers brushing Hinata’s shirt. “Can I put my arm over you?” He asked, blushing.

“Yeah. You don’t have to ask. It’s okay.”

He draped his arm across Hinata’s waist, his hand resting between the redhead’s shoulder blades, pressing their chests together. They were so close, so intimate, it felt like this moment could last for an eternity. It felt so  _ right _ , so perfect.

Hinata’s thumb brushed across Kageyama’s cheekbone, gently tilting his head to the side. Kageyama felt his heart beating insanely fast, and he was sure Hinata could probably feel it too, they were so close together. He realized he could feel Hinata’s heart beating fast, matching his own. Hinata’s breath was hot on his mouth.

Then Hinata’s lips were pressed to his, soft and warm, and Kageyama was kissing back frantically and it was the most amazing feeling ever. Their mouths worked together like they had done this a thousand times before, kissing like they would never get the chance to again, breath mingling together, bodies pressed close. His hand moved to cup the back of Hinata’s head and Hinata’s fingers worked through his hair, it was  _ perfect _ -

And Hinata quickly pulled away and his cheek brushed against Kageyama’s then his face was buried in the taller boy’s neck. They held each other tightly, not an inch of space between them, breathing hard. It felt like their bodies were made to fit together. 

“Are you okay?” Kageyama asked, his voice breathy.

Hinata nodded into the crook of his neck. “Sorry, I just - for a second…”

Kageyama tightened his arms around Hinata. For a second Hinata had thought Kageyama was that asshole. “You know I would never hurt you, right? I would never do something you don’t like.”

“I know,” Hinata said quietly. “I know. That’s why I trust you.” He gently brushed his fingers through Kageyama’s hair a few times, then drew his face away from Kageyama’s neck and settled onto the pillow, their foreheads touching lightly again.

Kageyama’s heart was thumping hard in his chest, but he felt comfortable and didn’t mind, the taste of Hinata lingering on his lips, his skin still on fire where Hinata touched him.

It felt like in that moment, he knew everything would be okay.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> damN IT  
> \--------
> 
> Have I mentioned how much I love you guys?? All of your comments make me smile so much, thank you!


	13. Chapter 13

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "Fall down seven times, stand up eight."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> yikes this is a week late sorry... I'm in the process of moving right now so I didn't have much time to write and I had to cut this chapter in half or it would have taken longer to get out. But hey, that means there's two more chapters??

When Kageyama opened his eyes in the morning, they hadn’t moved from their position from last night. His arm was still wrapped tightly around Hinata’s small body, faces close and their bodies pressed together. Hinata was still asleep, looking peaceful, his fingers loosely holding the front of Kageyama’s tee shirt.

The events of the night before flooded into his mind and he blushed and his eyes widened. They had kissed. He had actually _kissed_ Hinata! And it was _good_! Kageyama could still feel soft lips pressed against his own, their mouths working together, breathing each other in. He blushed even redder, and gently pulled his arm away from Hinata, feeling a bit stiff and uncomfortable from not moving the whole night. He sat up and climbed off the bed, careful not to wake the other.

Kageyama leaned to the side and cracked his back, looking over at the time. He woke up before his alarm clock; that didn’t happen very often. It was Wednesday, so they didn’t have morning practice, and wouldn’t have to be at school until almost 8:00am for their first classes.

He debated waking Hinata up now, but he looked like he was still tired and wasn’t having a nightmare like last time, so Kageyama decided to let him sleep for longer. After reaching over to silence his alarm so it wouldn’t wake Hinata, he grabbed his school uniform and left his room to go take a shower.

When he finished showering, getting dressed and brushing his teeth he walked back into his room to see Hinata sitting up and rubbing his eyes, a huge yawn on his lips. He brushed his fingers through his hair then then looked up, seeing Kageyama. A blush appeared on his cheeks and he quickley looked away and down at his blanket-covered lap.

“Do you need to borrow a uniform? It will be big on you but-”

“No, I still have my uniform in my bag. That should be fine. But - er do you have clean underwear I could borrow…? I didn’t bring any since I hadn’t planned on staying over...” Hinata muttered, but Kageyama still heard him.

“Um, yeah, here,” He walked to his clothes, trying not to think about Hinata _wearing his boxers_ and found his smallest pair. He tossed them to Hinata, who crumbled them in his fist, making a point not to look at them.

Hinata pulled the blanket off himself and and slid to the edge of the bed, his left leg and right pant leg hanging off.

“Do you wanna shower?”

Hinata nodded and Kageyama strode over to him, swiftly picking him up bridal style and startling Hinata while doing so. Hinata gripped his shirt in panic, then realized Kageyama was going to carry him to the bathroom again and relaxed.

Kageyama bent down the best he could and grabbed the strap of Hinata’s backpack, then walked out of his room and to the bathroom. He could see Hinata blushing out of the corner of his eye. He wondered if either of them were going to bring up the kiss. He didn’t really want to be the first person to say something, but he also sort of wanted it to happen again.

When he set Hinata down on the edge of the tub, just like last time, he put the bag down too and told the redhead to call him when he was done, and Hinata nodded. He backed out of the bathroom and shut the door, then listened for a moment until he heard the shower head turn on.

 

X x X x X

 

They left the house together a little while later, with a bit of time to kill so they didn’t have to rush. Neither had spoken much, but Kageyama noticed how Hinata kept chewing on his bottom lip, or tugging one of piercings or his hair. He was probably nervous about talking to his mom after school

“What if he finds out I’m going to tell?” Hinata asked, breaking the silence that had been stretching on.

“He won’t.”

“Are you sure?”

Kageyama turned his head to look down at the redhead. “Yeah. You don’t even walk by there on your way home. When we leave school we’ll go directly to your house.”

“But what if-”

“Shouyou,” Kageyama stopped walking. Hinata’s eyes were wide, his fingers twitching at his sides. “Everything’s going to be fine, okay? Don’t worry too much.”

Hinata hesitated, then nodded and they began walking again. Kageyama felt Hinata slid his warm hand into his, their fingers lacing together naturally. He felt the tips of his ears get hot and he glanced at Hinata out of the corner of his eye. Hinata was looking down at his feet, his wild hair obscuring his face.

Kageyama squeezed his hand, enjoying the feeling of something that just felt so _right_.

They parted ways for their first period class when they got to school, but Kageyama was a little reluctant to lose sight of Hinata. He wanted to make sure he would be okay. During his first class, Kageyama found himself unable to pay attention, his knee bouncing up and down, and glancing towards the door every few minutes like he would see the redhead walk past.

After that class ended, he passed Hinata in the hall, who was still fidgety and distracted.

Kageyama was nervous _for_ Hinata, he couldn’t even imagine how Hinata himself must be feeling.

The only time he was able to talk to Hinata again was during lunch when they met on the roof. Hinata had his back against the fence that surrounded the edge of the roof, his foot tapping the ground and his fingers twisting in his hair by his neck.

“You should eat,” Kageyama said.

“I’ll throw up if I do. I’m not really hungry anyways,” Hinata replied, looking off to the side.

“You’re going to be tired at practice.”

Hinata frowned, slid to the ground and rolled up his sleeves then opened the packaged meat bun he had bought in the cafeteria. He took a huge bite out of it, then looked up at Kageyama as if to say _“Are you happy now?”_ Kageyama rolled his eyes and Hinata kept eating.

“I’m scared,” Hinata said quietly after a few minutes of silence. “I’m so scared.”

Kageyama froze on his way to pick up their trash. He glanced up at Hinata, seeing him biting his lip, his eyes watering. “Don’t be,” Kageyama said, reaching out and taking his hand. “I’ll be there with you.”

Hinata choked and a few small tears spilled out the sides of his eyes and he squeezed Kageyama’s hand tighter. He let go after a second, his body shaking. He pressed the heels of his hands into his eyes and a sob wracked his body.

“I-I’m sorry,” He gasped. “I’m so pathetic, I can’t believe I’ve cried so much in front of you,” Hinata wiped at his eyes, tears spilling uncontrollably, his head bowed. “You must think I’m such a baby.”

Kageyama scooted forward on his knees so they were closer, “I don’t think that, you know I don’t.”

Hinata choked on a laugh, one hand covering his eyes, “When did you become so nice?”

Kageyama didn’t answer, he just watched sadly, not knowing how to help while Hinata tried to pull himself together. He didn’t know when he became like this. Had he always been this way, or was it just with Hinata?

“I’m so stupid,” Hinata dropped his hands from his face; his eyes were red and he kept sniffing. “I hate this,” He whispered, then violently raked his nails up his bare forearm over and over.

“What the fuck,” Kageyama grabbed his arms quickly and pulled them apart, glaring at Hinata, “The fuck are you doing? Don’t hurt yourself.”

Hinata leaned forward and rested his head against Kageyama’s shoulder, his arms limp in Kageyama’s hands. “I’m sorry,” He said quietly.

Kageyama sighed and dropped Hinata’s arms, then hugged him tightly. “Don’t be. Just don’t hurt yourself.”

“I didn’t really mean too.”

“Good.”

The bell rang, signalling for the end of lunch and they pulled apart. Hinata wiped his eyes again and asked Kageyama if it looked like he had been crying. He just looked really, really tired. It was upsetting to see on someone who was normally so full of life. They cleaned up their lunches and left each other again to go to class.

Kageyama didn’t see Hinata the rest of the day, but they met outside of the club room before afternoon practice. The only other people still getting changed where Kinoshita, Nartia and Tanaka, so while Kageyama changed, Hinata pretended to be looking for something in his bag until the second years left.

After they both changed, then made their way to the gym.

Hinata seemed to be less nervous during practice and happier too. It was nice to see him smiling again, even if it didn’t quite meet his eyes. He was able to go almost forty-five minutes without needing a break, and when he was called to sit out he didn’t seen too discouraged. Instead he just sat down on one of the benches and massaged his leg for a few minutes.

But toward the end of practice he started getting fidgety again, and when coach called for them to start cleaning up, Kageyama saw Sugawara take Hinata to the side of the gym and talk to him for a few minutes. When they were done talking, Hinata walked over to Kageyama, still looking nervous, but less fidgety.

“What did he say?” Kageyama asked.

Hinata shrugged and looked down at his shoes. “He just told me to stay calm and make sure my mom is listening when I talk to her.”  

Kageyama put his hand on Hinata’s shoulder and squeezed, then turned to continue helping clean up.

 

X x X x X

 

They walked out of the club room together, and Hinata was practically shaking. He didn’t seem to hear anything Kageyama was saying to try and calm him down, he just kept rambling on about everything that could possibly go wrong.

“What if he’s waiting outside of the school? Or what if he comes to my house when I don’t show up,” He gasped. “What if he called my mom and convinces her I ran away again and the police get involved?”

“I don’t think-”

“What if my mom doesn’t believe me? Or - oh no what if she thinks _you_ did it?” He asked, looking up in panic with his eyes wide

Kageyama froze for a second, then ran through that scenario. There was no way Hinata-san would think that, she would know better. “I’m sure she wouldn’t think that, Shouyou, your mom knows me.”

Hinata looked down, “Yeah, you’re right.”

They continued walking out of the school grounds and onto the sidewalk. Kageyama could practically feel the tension radiating off of Hinata, his movements stiff and choppy, his eyes trained hard on the ground.

“Can you walk all the way to your house?” Kageyama asked. He knew Hinata had been getting driven from home to school, but his dad’s car had broken down.

Hinata looked up at the road ahead and shrugged. “I think I’ll be fine, but I’ll have to take off my prosthetic when I get home.”

“Is it getting easier to walk long distances?” Kageyama asked. Maybe if he could get him to focus on something other than the inevitable upcoming conversation with Hinata-san, he would relax.

“I guess. It still sends a shock up my thigh to my hip whenever I land from a jump, but it’s really not too bad. It’s weird not to feel the floor under my foot when I land either,” Hinata described.

“But it doesn’t hurt all the time right?”

“No, not really.”

“That’s good.” They fell into silence again, but Hinata seemed to have relaxed a little bit.

It felt like the walk to the Hinata’s house took less time than normal, but that was probably because Kageyama’s own nerves were gnawing away at his brain. Despite trying to make sure Hinata didn’t have a breakdown, he was worrying himself about how this would go. It could either work out great, and Hinata would get help and everything would be fine - but there was always the possibility of it backfiring.

They walked up the steps to Hinata’s house, and Natsu was at the door to greet them. Hinata smiled at the sight of her, but then the two of them whisked off to go to Hinata’s room. Kageyama put his bag down on the floor and turned to the redhead.

“Your mom is home,” He pointed out uselessly.

Hinata’s eyes were wide and he was staring at a spot on the wall over Kageyama’s shoulder. His hands were in shaking fists and his chest was rapidly rising and falling.

Kageyama glanced over his shoulder, though he knew there was nothing there, but just incase Hinata did see something. Of course there was nothing there. He looked back at Hinata, who looked right through him. “Shouyou?”

Hinata didn’t respond, so Kageyama reached out and took him by the shoulders - he tensed immediately, but Kageyama didn’t let go - and maneuvered him to sit down on the bed. Kageyama knelt down on the floor in front of him and rolled up his pant leg, revealing his full prosthetic. He would take it off for Hinata, but he wasn’t completely sure how and didn’t want to accidently hurt him. “You need to take it off,” He said, but Hinata still seemed to be lost in his mind. “Shouyou, you’re safe here okay? Everything’s going to be fine.”

Kageyama stood up and put his hands on the bed on either side of Hinata, then tentatively leaned forward and pressed their foreheads together, like the night before. It sounded like Hinata was holding his breath.

“Breathe… in and out, slowly,” To show, Kageyama inhaled and exhaled a few times until he heard Hinata copying him. Kageyama put his hands on the shorter boy’s shoulders, feeling that he was less tense. He pulled his forehead away and searched Hinata’s eyes. He looked scared, but he was seeing Kageyama now which was good. He tapped Hinata’s leg.“Let’s take this off, okay?”

Hinata nodded and Kageyama moved so he could bend over. Kageyama watched carefully as Hinata’s shaking hands went through the motions, and Kageyama made sure to remember everything incase he had to help take it off ever. When Hinata was done, he rolled his pant leg so it covered the part of his thigh that was left, but wouldn’t drag on the floor. Then he pulled a crutch out from under his bed and stood it next to him for when he would get up.

“All right?” Kageyama asked. Hinata nodded and let out a deep breath. “Are you ready? To talk to your mom?”

Hinata hesitated briefly, then gave a curt nod and stood up, pulling the crutch under one arm and leaning on it heavily, “Before I get too nervous again.”

They left his room together and walked into the living room where Hinata-san sat with Nastu on the couch. She looked up when they entered with a smile that quickly slipped off her face when she saw their expressions. “Shou-chan? Kageyama-kun? What’s wrong? You look like someone just died…”

“C-can I talk to you m-mom? Alone?” Hinata stuttered. His voice was raspy and shaking. Out of the corner of Kageyama’s eye, he could see how pale Hinata suddenly was and he was momentarily afraid the redhead might pass out.

The woman frowned and put down the book she was holding and stood up, “Of course, honey, are you okay?” She walked over to Hinata and put her hand on his forehead, “You look like you’re going to be sick.”

Hinata audibly swallowed, then said quietly, “I just need to talk you.”

She nodded, her brow creased with worry, “Let’s go to my room.”

“Okay,” Hinata said, his voice dry. He glanced at Kageyama. “You should wait in the hall.”

Kageyama nodded and watched mother and son walk down the hallway to Hinata-san’s bedroom, which was on the ground floor. Hinata locked eyes with Kageyama right before they shut the door.

“Where is Nii-chan going? Is he okay?” Natsu asked from the couch, holding crayons in her hands, a coloring book open on her lap.

Kageyama scratched the back of his head. “Um. He’ll be out in a few minutes.”

Natsu grinned at him. “Okay!”

She turned back to her coloring and Kageyama moved closer to Hinata-san’s room and sat on the floor with his back against the wall. He could just barely hear the low mumble of Hinata’s voice through the wall.

It was a few minutes before he heard Hinata-san’s voice raise franticly and then what could only be Hinata’s crying. Kageyama stood up, ready for if Hinata was coming out for the room. The next minute all he could hear was Hinata-san’s shaking voice, getting louder and the younger’s small voice answering her, but it was hard to hear what they were saying.

Eventually, the bedroom door was flung open and the woman rushed out, her cell phone against her ear, looking pale and talking quickly to whoever was on the other end. Hinata walked out a moment later, leaning heavily on his crutch and tears cascading down his cheeks but a smile on his lips regardless.

He stepped forward and wrapped his free arm around Kageyama’s waist, and Kageyama hugged him tightly. “Thank you so much,” He whispered.

“Don’t thank me,” Kageyama said, his cheek pressed into Hinata’s unruly hair. “Who is your mom calling?”

Hinata pulled away from Kageyama to answer, “She’s on the phone with my dad right now, but then she’s calling the police,” He glanced away, looking embarrassed. “It’s probably about to get really chaotic around here. Thank you for coming with me but… you should probably go home.”

“It’s okay. I don’t mind,” Kageyama said.

They walked to the door together and stepped outside, leaving the door cracked open behind them. It was dark out, but the warm light from inside the house streamed between them, lighting up the sides of their faces. Hinata wiped his tear-stained cheeks on his shirt sleeve, then smiled sweetly and Kageyama felt it go straight to his heart.

“Um - call me… er text me or something when things die down. So I know you’re okay,” Kageyama said, feeling a blush on his face.

“Yeah, I will.”

Kageyama nodded and stepped down off the porch and onto the pavement, but felt a tug on the collar of his shirt. He turned around, about eye level with Hinata’s shoulders, and looked up at the redhead to ask what was wrong.

Before he could, Hinata gripped Kageyama’s jaw gently and tilted his head up, then kissed him. Hinata fingers were soft where they held his jaw, and his lips were warm. It was amazing, just like the night before, and Kageyama loved every second of it.

When the Hinata pulled back, their lips stayed barely a few centimeters apart, breathing against each other.

“I…” Hinata started quietly. “I like kissing you.”

Kageyama felt his face turn beat red, and when Hinata quickly pulled away in embarrassment, his face was red too.

“Shouyou, please come inside!” His mom shouted from in the house. Hinata looked over his shoulder quickly, then smiled shyly at Kageyama.

“Bye, Tobio,” He turned and walked back into his house, then shut the door.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> the end is near...


	14. Chapter 14

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _"People change, things go wrong. Shit happens, but life goes on."_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> !!!!!PLEASE READ IF YOU LIKE THIS STORY!!!!  
>  \--This is it. I know last chapter I said there would be two more, but I decided to post the Epilogue separately, because I love the way this ends.  
> \--I turned this work into the **first part** of a series, because **the Epilogue will be posted as the next part**. It will only be one chapter long, but should be out in a few days.  
>  \--ALSO, **after the epilogue I will be posting a short story (5 or 6 chapters??) from Hinata's perspective from when he was in America**. Obviously, it will be a higher rating, but it will be posted into the series collection. **So if you want to know when those are posted, please bookmark/subscribe to the seires "Hold On, Pain Ends"**
> 
> As of right now, (while I'm typing this) this story has:  
> 76 Pages  
> 38,000+ words  
> 88 Comments  
> 249 kudos  
> 2,939 hits!!
> 
> Otherwise, this is the last chapter! I want to thank everyone SOOO much who has read, commented, bookmarked, left a kudos or anything! You are all so nice and inspired me so much! So thank you, thank you, thank you!!
> 
> So, enjoy the last chapter of The Things I'll Do For You.

That night, Kageyama laid in his bed, checking his phone every couple of minutes and waiting for a call. It had only been a few hours since he had left Hinata’s house, but he was still worried.

Finally, just as he was about to drift off to sleep, his phone started beeping and he swiftly sat up and answered it.  

“Tobio?” Hinata’s voice came clear through the speakers, but it sounded like he was talking quietly.

“Are you okay? What’s happening?”

“Yeah, I’m… I’m okay. There’s a lot of people here - cops and stuff,” Hinata said with a sigh. “Sorry it took me so long to call you, they were asking me questions and making sure I’m not hurt and stuff. We’re actually about to head to the hospital.”

“The hospital? Why?”

“Well… I mean, er, I wasn’t r-raped, but they still have to get me checked out and tested to make sure…” He said, his voice shaking. “I’m really nervous.”

“What about the therapist? Is he going to be arrested?” Of course that asshole was going to be arrested, why would he think otherwise?

“Nobody is telling me much, but I think a few officers are leaving to find him right now. He’s already called the house because I didn’t show up to the therapy session but we didn’t answer the phone. I hope he doesn’t know that I told already.”

“He wouldn’t,” Kageyama assured. 

A door being slammed could be heard in the background and Hinata gasped. A muffled shout came through, and Hinata called warily for his mom.

“Shouyou? What’s happening?” Kageyama asked, gripping the phone tightly.

“I - I don’t know, I heard a door slam downstairs and now there a lot of movement and yelling. I’m going to go see,” He said.

“Wait, no! You should stay upstairs, just incase.”

Hinata ignored him, and he could hear the redhead moving around, then he shouted, “Mom!” And it sounded like the phone was dropped to the floor.

“Shouyou!” Kageyama yelled into his phone. He could only hear muffled shouting and scuffled movement on the other line, then a thud and the call was cut off. He pulled the phone away from his ear and looked at it in shock, then immediately called Hinata back.

No answer.

He let out a frustrated growl, fighting the want to run all the way to Hinata’s house to make sure he was okay. Kageyama tried calling twice more, before setting his phone down and trying to sleep, but he couldn’t stop thinking. Scenarios running through his head, every possible thing that could have gone wrong...

Eventually, about an hour later, his phone chimed and his arm bolted out of his blankets, snatching it up to read the text message.

 

**From:** Hinata Shouyou

**To:** Tobio

Gatley showed up @ the house lookin 4 me

He knew i told whn he saw cops

Evrythng is ok

But im @ the hospital now

Cant call

 

Relief washed over him, everything was okay, the police probably had Gatley in custody now. He sent a reply to Hinata asking what was going to happen next, and eventually fell asleep while waiting for a reply. 

 

X x X x X

 

Kageyama didn’t get a response to his text and Hinata wasn’t at practice the next morning. Some of the team asked where he was, but Kageyama lied and said he didn’t know. Sugawara looked doubtful but didn’t ask. It wasn’t for Kageyama to tell anyways, and if Hinata wanted the team to know he would tell them himself.

Hinata didn’t show up to school the rest of that day or Friday. Kageyama tried to call or text him but it went to voicemail each time and none of the messages were read. He tried not to worry too much, because he knew that now his parents would take care of him, and he had been at the hospital. 

He considered walking up to Hinata’s house on Saturday, but figured it was best to wait until Hinata came to him, or was back in school.

When Monday came around, Hinata still hadn’t shown up. Suga pulled Kageyama aside and asked if Hinata was okay. Kageyama said he thinks so, but hasn’t seen him since Wednesday night.

Finally, on Tuesday Kageyama was helping Nishinoya set up the net for morning practice and everyone was warming up when the gym door opened again. Kageyama turned around and saw Hinata standing in the doorway with a smile. 

“Sorry I’m late!” He said, slipping off his hoodie and dropping it against the wall.

Tanaka and Noya were the first to bound over to him excitedly, but Kageyama was to first to zero in on the hand-shaped bruises around his neck. Kageyama was in front of Hinata in less than a second, scenarios running through his mind,  _ how did he not think this would happen? Why was he so confident Hinata was safe? _

He pushed Noya to the side and grabbed Hinata’s shoulder and tilted his chin up, examining the bruises. They were a few days old, dark purple and painful looking. Kageyama was ready to pull Hinata’s shirt up to look for more, but his shaking hands were stopped by Hinata grabbing his wrists.

“-obio, Tobio, stop,” Hinata pulled Kageyama’s arms away. “I’m fine. Okay? I promise, I’m fine.”

Kageyama searched his eyes for anything that might give away a lie, but all he found was honesty and with the small smile Hinata had on his face, he couldn’t help but to believe him.

“Shit, Shouyou, what the hell happened?” Tanaka asked, tugging at the collar of Hinata’s shirt.

“Are you okay?” Noya asked, sounding worried.

“I’m fine really,” he said.

A few of the other teams members had joined them, and were all concerned upon seeing the obvious bruising. 

“That doesn’t look like you’re fine,” Daichi said. “Did someone do that to you?”

Sugawara caught Kageyama’s eyes with a panicked look, and Kageyama gave a slight shake of his head. It was up to Hinata what he wanted to tell everyone else. They could talk to him privately later.

“Yes,” Hinata answered Daichi honestly, “But I don’t want to talk about it.”

“We just need to know that you’re not in any danger,” Ennoshita said from near Suga.

Hinata smiled. “I’m okay, really. It’s been taken care of and won’t happen again.”

“You would tell us if you needed help, right?” Asahi asked, looking a little pale as he stared at the marks.

Kageyama caught Hinata’s eyes quickly as he answered, “Of course.”

Everyone still looked worried for him, but respected him enough to not push answers out of him and Daichi called for them to get back to warming up and setting up the court. Sugawara puts a hand on Hinata’s shoulder and squeezed, still looking a concerned.

“Can we talk after practice?”

Hinata nodded, and Suga jogged away to continue stretching.

Kageyama looked down at Hinata, who honestly looked really happy regardless of the bruises. He had an air of confidence around him that he hadn’t had in a really long time.

“You’d tell me if something was wrong, right?”

“I would,” Hinata answer sincerely, holding Kageyama’s gaze. “I promise, everything’s okay. We can talk about it after practice.”

“Okay,” Kageyama says. If Hinata says he’s fine, Kageyama believes him. His eyes flicked to Hinata’s lips briefly and he noticed his piercings were gone.

Hinata noticed and grinned sheepishly, bringing a hand up to touch his bottom lip. “I lost them at the hospital.”

“Hurry up, we’re starting!” Someone shouted from behind Kageyama.

“Come on, Bakageyama,” Hinata grinned, and this time it reached his eyes. He put a hand on Kageyama’s shoulder and sprung to his toes, kissing the taller boy on the cheek, then bounded away, giving Tanaka then Noya each a double high-five.

Kageyama felt his face heat up, but he shook it off and ran onto the court to join his team.

 

X x X x X

 

After practice Hinata pulled Sugawara and Kageyama outside of the gym away from everyone else to talk. He started by telling Suga what happened when he got home Wednesday with Kageyama, and Suga was proud of him for telling his mom.

“After you left,” He directed at Kageyama, “My dad showed up, he had been out running errands and he was the first person my mom called. It was weird because we haven’t been getting along recently and he was really scared.” Hinata trailed off, his brows knit together. “I guess I never really realized how worried he is for me.”

“That’s what parents are for,” Suga said gently.

Hinata smiled and shrugged. “Anyways, eventually some police showed up and I had to tell everything that’s happened - which was really scary and embarrassing because my mom started crying and my dad had taken Natsu upstairs because she didn’t know what was going on. A lot of it was phone calls and my parents shouting and crying and there was just a lot of confusion, but I was really tired too so I might have missed something.”

“When did you call me?” Kageyama asked.

“Oh, that was right after they said I needed to go to the hospital to-” Hinata’s face turned red. “To make sure I didn’t pick up any, er, diseases.” He explained, the quickly added, “Which I didn’t. Thankfully.”

He dug the toes of his shoe into the dirt and Kageyama and Suga waited for him to continue.

“But, before we went I called Tobio and in the middle of the call, Gatley - the therapist - showed up looking for me, but as soon as he saw the cops he realized I had told. My mom was shouting at him and my dad tried to punch him, but a cop held him back. That’s when he noticed me by the stairs and he - he grabbed me and held me by the neck, which is why I have this,” He pointed to his neck. “But the police got him restrained. They took him away, then I got drove to the hospital where they took pictures. Of, you know, the bruises and marks and stuff.”

“What are they doing with Gatley?” Suga asked.

“Sending him back to America to stand trial,” Hinata explained. “I don’t have to appear in court because they took my statement on video and they have the pictures and everything. My friend James, who was also - um, also m-molested. He’s going to be there.”

“That’s good right?” Suga asked.

Hinata nodded, “Yeah. He's a bit more confident than I am, so I think it’s better that he’s there.”

Kageyama’s had spent a lot of time being jealous of James and irritated that Hinata became so close with him, but he suddenly realized that his glad Hinata had someone there with him through that whole nightmare. Maybe Jame wasn’t actually all that bad.

“Anyways,” Hinata said. “Thank you guys for helping. I’m really glad I told now.”

Suga smiled. “You don’t have to thank us, Shouyou,” He said, then pulled Hinata into a tight hug, and ruffled his hair, making Hinata laugh. Suga looked between the two of them and said, “Hurry up and get changed or you’ll miss attendance.”

They nodded and Suga waved, then disappeared around the corner of the building.

Hinata turned to Kageyama and smiled.

“What?”

“Nothing,” He said innocently, glancing away. “You’re just cute.”

Kageyama blushed hard, “W-what? Cute?”

Hinata grinned. “I gotta go, or I’ll be late. Bye!” He rushed off to go get changed.

For a minute Kageyama just stood there waiting for the flustered feeling in his chest to go away, until he heard the bell ring and realized he was going to be late to class.

 

X x X x X

 

The day rushed by quickly, and for the first time in a while Kageyama didn’t feel anxiety gnawing at his chest constantly, and he didn’t feel like he needed to check on Hinata throughout the day.

Afternoon practice went well, everyone was on game and Hinata said that his prosthetic was barely bothering him. Practice ran late because everyone was feeling great, so when they finally finished the sun was just about setting.

“Hey,” Hinata said, tapping his water bottle against Kageyama’s arm. “Come get ice cream with me.”

Kageyama nodded and finished pulling on a clean shirt. He grabbed his bag and followed Hinata out of the club room and off the school grounds. Hinata walked with a bit of a bounce, humming something quietly and looking around. 

He looked more  _ alive  _ than Kageyama had seen since he came home. It was beautiful.

“Are you okay?” Hinata asked, turning and walking backwards.

“Yeah, why?”

Hinata shrugged. “Your face it doing that thing.”

“Thing? What thing?” 

“When you look concerned and angry at the same time; it’s really funny because you’re like a pouting toddler.”

Kageyama glared and grabbed Hinata’s head, making him laugh. “You’re weird.”

“ _ You’re  _ weird,” Hinata said. Kageyama’s hand slipped off his red hair when he turned around to walk forward again.

Kageyama rolled his eyes as they approached the ice cream parlor. Hinata got strawberry in a bowl and so did Kageyama. They sat down at a picnic table, with a clear view of the sun setting and casting and orange glow around them, just like the last time they were here.

He looks down at the pink in his bowl and was reminded that Hinata’s hair always smelled like strawberries because he shared a shampoo with his little sister. Hinata’s knee bumped his under the table and he looked up.

“Whatcha thinkin’ about?” Hinata asked, putting his elbow on the table and resting his cheek on his hand.

“Your face.”

“Wha-” Hinata burst out laughing, throwing his head back.

Kageyama liked his laugh.

“You’re so lame,” Hinata said, grinning. He leaned over the table towards Kageyama, who instinctively leaned backwards. Hinata laughed again. “Bring your face closer.”

Kageyama slowly leaned forward again and Hinata captured his lips in a quick kiss, then sat back down and put a spoonful of ice cream in his mouth with a cheeky smile. Blushing, Kageyama looked down at the table.

“You blush a lot.”

He looked up and glared at Hinata. “Yeah, well you - uh - you… kiss me a lot…” He mumbled. Fuck.

“Yeah but you like it, so…” 

Before he could blush  _ again _ , he shoved a huge bite of ice cream in his mouth.

Hinata pointed his plastic spoon at Kageyama. “You should be my boyfriend.”

Kageyama choked on his mouthful and bent down to the side, coughing, while Hinata laughed hysterically, almost falling off the bench. Kageyama pounded his chest with one hand, then grabbed a napkin and wiped off his mouth. 

“What did you say?” He asked, looking at Hinata, who was still doubled over trying to catch his breath.

When he did, he grinned cheekily and said, “I said, you should be-”

“Don’t say it again.”

“You literally just asked me-”

“Yeah but I didn’t think you were serious!” 

Hinata raised an eyebrow.

“Okay.” Kageyama said.

“Okay?” Hinata asked. “What does that mean?”

“It means okay!” He said, flustered.

“Like… okay you’ll be my boyfriend?”

Kageyama ducked his head, fighting the urge to cover his face. This was so embarrassing, why does Hinata even like him? “Yes, now stop saying it.”

Hinata shook his head and smiled. “Good.”

They finished eating, Hinata practically glowing, bouncing his leg up and down and looking around. The sun had set and the streetlights turned on by the time they threw out the styrofoam bowls and spoons. 

Kageyama walked with Hinata towards the mountain that leads to his house, and Hinata took his hand, swinging it between them. Hinata’s hands were warm and so was the smile stuck to his face. He looked content, relaxed, and Kageyama was glad for that.

“Why are you staring at me?” Hinata asked.

“You’re cute.”

“Shut up!” Hinata laughed and stuck out his tongue. He stopped walking and turned to face Kageyama. “Kiss me!”

Kageyama let go of Hinata’s hand and wrapped one arm around his waist and put the other on the side of his head, his thumb stroking Hinata’s cheek. Hinata wrapped his arms around Kageyama’s neck and pulled him gently down.

Their lips fit together like they’ve done it a thousand times before, and their bodies fit together as if they were made for each other. Warmth radiated from Hinata where their chests were pressed together, and Hinata’s fingers curled in Kageyama’s hair, and he could feel the smiled on Hinata’s lips. The kiss was quick and soft, but they didn’t let go of each other when it ended.

Instead, they pressed their foreheads together, eyes closed and lips smiling. It was like they were the only two people in the world - Kageyama felt absolutely invincible with Hinata by his side, and he hoped Hinata felt exactly the same.

**Author's Note:**

> Please leave a comment telling me if you like the story so far!


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